Manchester United have finalised the signing of Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa on a five-year contract.
The club triggered a £35m release clause for the 29-year-old midfielder, who recently helped Belgium progress to the World Cup quarter-finals.
Tielemans has featured for Villa across the last three campaigns, having first arrived in the Premier League with Leicester City in 2019.
“Words can hardly capture how proud I feel to join Manchester United,” he said. “It feels extraordinary to sign for such a unique club.
“This is the reward for years of dedication, ever since I first fell in love with the game.”
A one-time team-mate of United’s current first-team coach Jonny Evans, Tielemans is known for scoring Leicester’s winning goal against Chelsea in the 2021 FA Cup final, as well as finding the net for Aston Villa in their Europa League final victory over Freiburg back in May.
He made his senior breakthrough at Anderlecht aged 16 years and 82 days, and departed for Monaco in 2017 just after his 20th birthday.
Despite still being in his twenties, Tielemans has already amassed 668 appearances for club and country, with 79 goals from 578 club outings.
Manchester United’s director of football Jason Wilcox said: “Throughout the past seven years, Youri has repeatedly shown himself to be one of the most accomplished midfielders in the Premier League.
“He possesses every technical quality, as well as the drive and mindset, to flourish at Manchester United.
“Youri’s reliability is outstanding, and he will introduce even more composure, creativity and leadership to our group.”
Last season, Tielemans was hampered by separate calf and ankle injuries that limited him to 35 appearances in all competitions for Villa, his lowest tally during a single campaign since moving to England.
He struck a memorable 89th-minute equaliser for Belgium against Senegal at the World Cup, and then converted an extra-time penalty to claim a 3-2 win, taking his international tally to 15 goals in 90 caps.
His tournament was cut short, however, after he picked up an injury in the warm-up ahead of Belgium’s 2-1 quarter-final defeat by Spain.
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