Izuchukwu Okosi
Aston Villa on Friday morning announced that Philippe Coutinho will join the Birmingham based side from Barcelona on loan for the rest of the season.
Villa have the option to buy the Brazil international who is now expected to travel to England to complete the formalities of his move.
The midfielder will link up with Villa boss Steven Gerrard, who he played with at Liverpool.
A statement read: “Aston Villa and Barcelona have agreed terms for Philippe Coutinho to spend the rest of this season on loan at Villa Park.
“The agreement, which is subject to the player completing a medical and receiving a work permit, also includes an option to buy and Philippe will travel to Birmingham in the next 48 hours.”
Barcelona confirmed Villa will pay part of Coutinho’s wages as he returns to the Premier League after four years.
He joined Barcelona from Liverpool in 2018 in a deal worth £146million but has struggled at the Nou Camp and spent 2019-20 on loan at Bayern Munich.
Despite helping Barca win LaLiga in 2018 and 2019 he never found the form he displayed in the Premier League with Liverpool.
He becomes Gerrard’s first signing at Villa since the boss joined from Rangers in November.
“He’s won two league titles at Barcelona, two Copa del Reys,” Gerrard had said on Thursday.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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