Aston Villa are eyeing a move for Boca Juniors Kevin Zenón, and the player is already preparing to leave the Argentine side.
That’s according to journalist Jonathan Riniti for El Crack Deportivo, who has insisted that a January move is on the cards.
Zenón is one of several rising stars currently establishing themselves in the Boca Juniors first team after making his debut for Boca Juniors in 2021.
He’s made 39 appearances for Boca since then, with four goals and seven assists in to his name so far.
The 23-year-old is part of a current crop of players in that age bracket making their way into the Argentine game. Several of them have already secured moves to Europe and Zenón has long been linked with a similar move in the near future.
Tottenham and Newcastle United have been credited with an interest in months, while Brighton were believed to be interested last year while they were chasing Valentin Barco.
None of those clubs have seriously stepped up as yet and could now miss out entirely, with Riniti insisting it is now Aston Villa who are leading the charge.
“Aston Villa wants Zenón,” he said.
“They have been following him since before the Olympic Games, so they are considering presenting an offer to get him out of Boca and make him a teammate of Dibu Martínez.”
“Boca knows that the player is already considering leaving the club, despite the fact that the directors were told the opposite. The rejected offer of $18m from Germany marks the floor that the club wants to get rid of the former Unión player.”
The website then adds that, despite Zenón having a $15m release clause, Aston Villa or other suitors will need to pay at least $20m to get him. Why that is the case isn’t made clear, just that Boca president Juan Román Riquelme is putting up a fight.
Either way, we’d take this with a hefty pinch of salt as El Crack Deportivo can have something of a scattergun approach in Argentina and the constant mention of Dibu Martinez, particularly after his Yashin Trophy win, makes it feel like they just wanted an excuse to link a player to Aston Villa and shoehorn him in.
That could just be us being a little hesitant of course, but we’ll wait for something a little more solid on Zenón before getting excited.
