Izuchukwu OkosiVillarreal manager Unai Emery on Monday reportedly accepted to take up the vacant coaching job of English Premier League side Aston Villa following the sacking of Steven Gerrard.
Emery had a stint at Arsenal replacing the legendary Arsene Wenger in May 2018 but was sacked 18 months into his job then due to a run of poor results despite a promising start.
The Spaniard returned to his home country to take charge of Villarreal with whom he won the Europa League in 2020 – a competition he had won thrice whilst he was in charge of La Liga side Sevilla.
Media reports from the English media on Monday evening indicated that Emery is expected to accept the Aston Villa job.
With Aston Villa hoping to quickly find a successor to the former Liverpool and England midfielder, Gerrard, Emery could take charge of his last Villarreal training on Tuesday and say his goodbye to the staff and players.
Talks are said to be at final stages with the Villa heirachy prepared to pay €6m release clause on the contract of Emery.
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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