{"id":33734,"date":"2026-08-17T02:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/aston-villa-close-in-on-zion-suzuki-signing-with-emi-martinezs-future-in-doubt\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T02:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:36:33","slug":"aston-villa-close-in-on-zion-suzuki-signing-with-emi-martinezs-future-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/aston-villa-close-in-on-zion-suzuki-signing-with-emi-martinezs-future-in-doubt\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa close in on Zion Suzuki signing with Emi Martinez&#8217;s future in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/aston-villa\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Aston Villa<\/b><\/a><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\"> are closing in on the signing of Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, with Emi Martinez&#8217;s future in increasing doubt.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Japan international Suzuki has been one of Villa&#8217;s top targets should Martinez leave this summer and the deal, reportedly for around \u00a330m, is progressing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Suzuki was born in America but qualifies for Japan through his mother and played all four of their matches at the World Cup this summer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 23-year-old has made 59 appearances for Parma since joining from J-League side Urawa Red Diamonds in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His impending arrival means Martinez could now move to Juventus with the Old Lady having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/cd7wgwrn0jyo\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">held an interest in the 33-year-old this summer.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Director of football operations Damian Vidagany had previously confirmed Martinez would stay at Villa Park but he is now more likely to depart before the transfer deadline. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Argentina international, who was a World Cup winner in 2022 and runner-up to Spain this year, joined Villa from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Arsenal<\/a> for \u00a317m in 2020. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has made 256 appearances and helped the club end their 30-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League in May. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Martinez missed Wednesday&#8217;s Super Cup defeat to Paris St-Germain with Unai Emery giving him, along with Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins, a month off after the World Cup. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was due to return to full training this week in preparation for Villa&#8217;s Premier League opener at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/brighton-and-hove-albion\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Brighton<\/a> on Sunday (14:00 BST). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/ckg44n858qvo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aston Villa are closing in on the signing of Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, with Emi Martinez&#8217;s future in increasing doubt. Japan international Suzuki has been one of Villa&#8217;s top targets should Martinez leave this summer and the deal, reportedly for around \u00a330m, is progressing. Suzuki was born in America but qualifies for Japan through his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-football","category-world-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33736,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33734\/revisions\/33736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}