Aston Villa at advanced stage of signing David Oduro from Barcelona

Aston Villa are the "most advanced" club in the bidding to sign David Oduro from Barcelona this summer.

Portuguese clubs Maritimo and Tondela are also in the hunt to sign the Ghana left-back, who starred for Barcelona Atletic last season in fourth tier of Spanish football.

It's been reported that the 20-year-old's time at Barcelona is over without him ever making a senior appearance for the La Liga giants.

And now, Aston Villa are closing in on a deal that will see them sign him and send him to affiliate club Annecy in Ligue 2.

Spanish newspaper Sport claims that after Barcelona's B team welcomed Ecuadorian left-back Josue Caicedo as a new signing, the door opened for Oduro to move on.

It is understood that the "final details are being ironed out" now for him to leave Barca and potentially join Villa.

Who is David Oduro?

This is very unlikely to be a first-team signing for Aston Villa, and is instead one that NSWE is facilitating for Annecy, who are part-owned by V Sports.

In Oduro, Annecy will be signing a left-back who's spent the last two years trainign at La Masia - one of the best youth academies in the world.

Before joining Barca, he played for Accra Lions in Ghana, who he made his senior international debut for back in May when he played as a late substitute in a friendly defeat to Mexico.

In his debut season at Barcelona, he helped the Catalan club win the UEFA Youth League, but wasn't in the squad that beat Aston Villa's Under-19s in the round of 16 of the competition.

Barca must believe that Oduro does have some potential, especially due to a clause they're reportedly including in a deal that sees him leave.

Barcelona's terms for letting Oduro join Aston Villa

Sport claims that Barca will retain 50 per cent of any future sale rights in order "to maintain control over his development".

Austrian side Sturm Graz tried to sign Oduro earlier this summer but were rejected by the Ghanaian left-back, who scored one goal and supplied one assist in 23 league appearances for Barcelona B last term.

He's now looking to move to a higher division and should he opt for Aston Villa, he'll be doing that as he'll be joining Annecy in the French second tier.

Villa have already sent Kadan Young and Zepiqueno Redmond on loan to East France and Oduro could become the third Villan to make the move after V Sports bought a 30 per cent share in them earlier this summer.