“He’s little bit faster than me”: Aston Villa’s captain John McGinn on Moussa Diaby

Birmingham [England], July 23 (ANI): Aston Villa football club captain John McGinn is excited to welcome new signing Moussa Diaby from Bayer Leverkusen. In a recent interview, John McGinn said, “He’s a little bit faster than me”.

French national Moussa Diaby has joined Premier League club Aston Villa from Bayer Leverkusen. After the signing, Aston Villa’s manager Unai Emery said, ‘We are really excited and are really happy with him.’
According to Aston Villa’s website, “The 24-year-old winger joins Villa from Bayer Leverkusen for an undisclosed fee and has already linked up with his new team-mates on their tour of the United States.”

John McGinn said, He’s a little bit faster than me “I’m excited. We obviously hear the rumours, we read the stories, but we never really get the knowledge until he walks through the door.”

He added, “I think if you have any knowledge of football if you love football, you know who he is,” said the Scotland international. You’re excited by him coming in, he’s certainly going to improve us.”

The France international winger sealed his move to Aston Villa on Saturday for an undisclosed fee, immediately joining the club’s pre-season trip to the USA.

While concluding McGinn said, He was at the hotel today and he knows some of the players already, which helps. And the thing for us is there’s a lot of players here who didn’t have European experience; what Pau, Youri and Moussa add is European experience, which can only help us as a team.”

Diaby, who has 10 international caps for France, started his career with his hometown club, Paris Saint-Germain, graduating from the youth ranks into the first team.

Since joining Leverkusen in 2019, his performances for the Bundesliga side both domestically and in the Champions League and Europa League had caught the eye of several clubs around Europe. He finished last season with 14 goals to his name in all competitions.

Diaby is a product of the Paris Saint-Germain Youth Academy. He joined the club when he was 13 and began playing for the B team in 2017. Diaby was the recipient of the 2016 Titi d’Or as the most promising and best talent in the Paris Saint-Germain Academy.

In 2019, it was announced that Diaby would join Bayer Leverkusen on a five-year deal. Diaby scored his first Bundesliga goal for Leverkusen in his first competitive start in November 2019 in the club’s 1–1 draw with SC Freiburg.

Diaby scored Leverkusen’s third goal in stoppage time to seal a win over 1. FC Union Berlin in the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal in March 2020. In the next round, Diaby scored the first goal in Leverkusen’s 3–0 victory over fourth division 1. FC Saarbrucken to secure a spot in the 2020 DFB-Pokal Final.

In 2021, he scored in the Bundesliga against Borussia Monchengladbach and it was his first goal of the season. He managed to score nine goals and provided eight assists in the 2022–23 season.