Former Aston Villa striker set to complete £17m transfer amid reunion links

Former Aston Villa striker Tammy Abraham is set to complete a move to Turkey, having been linked with a return to Villa Park earlier this summer. Abraham has been in Italy since 2021, when he joined AS Roma, although last year he spent the campaign on loan at Serie A rivals AC Milan.

Abraham was loaned to Villa, then in the Championship, in 2018 and he fired 26 goals for the club – including four in the 5-5 draw with Nottingham Forest – as they sealed promotion back to the Premier League via the play-offs under Dean Smith.

The forward returned to Chelsea and worked under Frank Lampard, but his successor Thomas Tuchel allowed Abraham to leave the club on a permanent basis for £34m a couple of seasons later and he has scored 37 goals in 120 appearances for the club from the capital. Last year, he netted ten goals and produced seven assists in 44 appearances for Milan.

Abraham, now 27, still has two years remaining on his contract in Rome but Fabrizio Romano reports that he is in line to make a move to Besiktas this summer for a fee in the region of £17m (€20m). In the Super Lig he’ll reunite with his former Roma boss and the man who brought him to Italy, Jose Mourinho, the current manager of Fenerbahce.

Abraham was briefly linked with a return to England and to Villa earlier this summer; he was tipped to make the move and lead the line in the new season for newly promoted Leeds United, while the likes of Villa and Newcastle United were credited with an interest in a player who would’ve offered competition for Ollie Watkins and Alexander Isak respectively.

Now, though, Abraham – fit again after a serious injury ruled him out of most of the 2023-24 season – is all set for Besiktas, who he has reportedly agreed to make the move to, and the Turkish side and Roma are currently working on the aspects of the deal.