How close Aston Villa are to signing Matteo Ruggeri as travel plans revealed

Aston Villa have honed in on Matteo Ruggeri as their Lucas Digne replacement already.

Indeed, Digne completed his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday, after the French giants triggered his £8.5million release clause.

It sees the 33-year-old return to the Parisians, after leaving them in the summer of 2016 to sign for Barcelona.

This has left a void at left-back for Unai Emery to fill, but the Aston Villa manager already appears to have his man.

Atletico Madrid defender Ruggeri has been strongly linked with a move to Villa Park in recent days.

But now Villa look to have made quick and significant progress in their pursuit of the 24-year-old's signature.

When Matteo Ruggeri is expected to arrive in Birmingham

Villa News covered reports from last week that Ruggeri had signed off on a move to Aston Villa.

Talks evidently seem to have continued over the last few days, and those look to have been very productive.

Reporting via his X account just after midnight UK time on Monday morning, Marca's Matteo Moretto has reaffirmed that Ruggeri has agreed to join Aston Villa.

He claims that negotiations between Atletico and Villa are now set to be wrapped up imminently, with just some minor details to be ironed out.

Moretto ends his post by claiming that Ruggeri is expected to make his way to Birmingham this week, and judging by how close the deal now seems to being completed, that could well be in the next couple of days.

So, just how good was Ruggeri for Atletico last season, and what do his numbers suggest he'll bring to Villa Park?

Why Ruggeri is set to sharpen Aston Villa's cutting edge

Nowadays, most managers want their full-backs to not only be sound defenders, but dangerous and impactful contributors in attack as well.

Ruggeri will certainly tick those boxes for Emery, as proven by his numbers with Atletico in 2025-26 during his debut campaign for the Spaniards.

He provided seven assists in 47 total appearances for them last term, with three coming in La Liga, another three in the Champions League and one in the Copa del Rey respectively.

As per FotMob, Ruggeri created 25 chances, played 34 accurate long balls and delivered 29 successful crosses in just 26 La Liga outings last season.

Meanwhile, he also completed 86.8 per cent of his passes, won 26 aerial duels, made 65 clearances and took 33 touches in the opposition box.

For context, Digne also provided seven assists for Villa last season in all competitions, so it would seem that Ruggeri is a very similar stylistic match to the Frenchman.