{"id":595146,"date":"2026-08-16T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595146\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:00:08","slug":"aston-villa-close-in-on-zion-suzuki-signing-with-emi-martinezs-future-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/595146\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa close in on Zion Suzuki signing with Emi Martinez’s future in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Villa<\/a> are closing in on the signing of Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, with Emi Martinez’s future in increasing doubt.<\/p>\n

Japan international Suzuki has been one of Villa’s top targets should Martinez leave this summer and the deal, reportedly for around \u00a330m, is progressing. <\/p>\n

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

The 23-year-old has made 59 appearances for Parma since joining from J-League side Urawa Red Diamonds in 2024.<\/p>\n

His impending arrival means Martinez could now move to Juventus with the Old Lady having held an interest in the 33-year-old this summer.<\/a><\/p>\n

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

The Argentina international, who was a World Cup winner in 2022 and runner-up to Spain this year, joined Villa from Arsenal<\/a> for \u00a317m in 2020. <\/p>\n

He has made 256 appearances and helped the club end their 30-year trophy drought by winning the Europa League in May. <\/p>\n

Martinez missed Wednesday’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

He was due to return to full training this week in preparation for Villa’s Premier League opener at Brighton<\/a> on Sunday (14:00 BST). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Villa are closing in on the signing of Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, with Emi Martinez’s future in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-595146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}