Aston Villa have completed the signings of Senegal winger Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris St-Germain and English centre-back Taylor Harwood-Bellis from Southampton.
Mbaye, 18, arrives from Paris St-Germain for a fee of 55m euros (£47m), while Villa could pay up to £29m for Harwood-Bellis.
Villa have paid an initial fee of £25m – with £4m in potential add-ons – for the 24-year-old defender after seeing two previous bids rejected.
Mbaye scored three goals and provided two assists in 31 games in all competitions last season as PSG successfully defended their Ligue 1 and Champions League titles.
The teenager appeared in all four of Senegal’s matches at the 2026 World Cup, netting in a 3-1 defeat by France to become the youngest African player to score at a men’s World Cup.
Mbaye joined PSG in the summer of 2018 from FC Versailles 78, progressing through their youth academy and making his senior debut in August 2024 at the age of 16.
The winger was born in France and represented Les Bleus at youth level, but switched international allegiance to Senegal in 2025 after qualifying through his father.
A product of Manchester City’s youth academy, Harwood-Bellis joined Southampton for £20m in 2024 after impressing on loan.
A loan spell at Burnley in 2022-23 ended with a Championship winner’s medal, before he helped Southampton to promotion via the play-offs in 2023-24.
Southampton finished bottom of the table in Harwood-Bellis’ first season as a Premier League defender, before they reached the Championship play-off final last season.
However, Southampton were disqualified after the Spygate scandal and began the current campaign with a four-point deduction.
Harwood-Bellis apologised for making a binoculars gesture during their play-off semi-final second leg victory over Middlesbrough.
Mbaye is the latest attacker to join Unai Emery’s side following Alejandro Garnacho, Johan Manzambi and Nicolas Jackson.
Harwood-Bellis replaces Ezri Konsa in Villa’s defence, after the England centre-back made a £55m move to defending Premier League champions Arsenal.
While Villa have spent around £280m over the summer, Unai Emery has lost several key members of his Europa League-winning squad.
The club have raised over £313m in player sales, including Morgan Rogers’ £117m move to Chelsea and Ollie Watkins joining Al-Hilal for £51m.
Analysis: Villa still spending despite restrictions
Aston Villa have committed to spend about £280m in Emery’s summer rebuild.
The arrivals of Mbaye and Harwood-Bellis on deadline day shows Villa are continuing to spend big.
They have broken their transfer record twice with the arrivals of forwards Johan Manzambi (£52m) and Nicolas Jackson (£65m) so cannot plead poverty.
If all clauses and add-ons are triggered Villa would be pushing £300m this summer, despite needing to sell to comply with Uefa and Premier League financial rules.
Uefa limits the amount of revenue spent on wages, transfers and agent fees to 70% and Villa have already breached the regulations twice.
They were fined £19.4m in June – with £12.9m suspended – having been hit with a £9.5m sanction for a similar breach the year before and need to ensure they break even because of their settlement agreement with Uefa.
Despite that, Matteo Ruggeri (£17m), Harwood-Bellis (£30m), Joao Gomes (£38m) Jackson, Zion Suzuki (£30m), Manzambi and Mbaye (£47m) have all arrived, while midfielder Leon Goretzka has also joined on a free transfer after leaving Bayern Munich.
That comes having brought in just over £300m through the sales of Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne, Emi Martinez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins.
That figure also includes the £10.3m departure to Benfica of Enzo Barrenechea, who never played a Villa game, and Roma paying £21.3m to make Donyell Malen’s loan permanent.
Emery said following Monday’s defeat at Arsenal he was happy with their transfer business, and that everything Villa had planned for they had achieved.
It was always going to be a summer of change at Villa Park, although the depth of the transition with so many key players leaving is something Emery has already admitted he did not expect.
By BBC Sports
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