Aston Villa target Rodrigo Bentancur has a 'great future' amid transfer links

Aston Villa target Rodrigo Bentancur is one of the best technical footballers at Juventus, according to teammate and Netherlands international Matthijs De Ligt.

Villa are looking to bring holding midfielder Bentancur to Villa Park before the closure of the January transfer window, a deal which if they can strike will round off a wonderful month of recruitment on paper, after the signings of Philippe Coutinho, Lucas Digne and Robin Olsen.

While Villa beat Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park over the weekend, Bentancur was in action for Juventus in their draw with AC Milan on Sunday.

Bentancur arrived at Juventus from Boca Juniors in July 2017 for a fee of around £14m, and two years later De Ligt became his teammate upon arriving from Dutch giants Ajax.

After spending his first full season with the Old Lady, De Ligt outlined Bentancur as one of the most underrated players at the club and tipped him to go on to achieve big things.

“To be honest, the general level of the team is really high,” De Ligt told Tutto Sport in the summer of 2020. “Obviously there’s Ronaldo, but I won’t name him because everyone knows who Cristiano is and what he can do.

“So I’ll say there are two other players who struck me: one is [Paulo] Dybala, who has truly stunning technique. The other, and it might sound strange to some, is Rodrigo Bentancur, a player with truly amazing technical ability. He’s quite underrated. He’s a great player with a great future ahead of him.”

The Uruguayan has featured in 19 Serie A games so far this season, with Villa said to be ‘confident’ about completing a deal for the player before next week’s deadline.

It is said that Villa are willing to pay a fee of around £16 million, although it is not reported what the official