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    On This Day: Juan Pablo Angel joins Aston Villa for club-record fee

    Villa paid ₤ 9.5 million for the Colombian, who wound up costs more than 6 seasons with the club.

    Aston Villa sprinkled out a club-record transfer fee to bring Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel to the Premier League on December 22, 2000.

    Villa, under the management of John Gregory, paid ₤ 9.5 million to River Plate for the services of the then 25-year-old, beating the ₤ 7million they invested in Stan Collymore 3 and a half years formerly.

    Expectations were high, with Angel having actually been respected for River Plate, and he made his debut in a 2-0 defeat by Manchester United on January 20, 2001.

    https://t.co/suD0LvQkSX

    Juan Pablo Angel (@JUANPABLOANGEL) December 11, 2020

    However Angel at first struggled to adjust to life in England and the Premier League and did not score his first goal up until Might 2001.

    Composing on The Coaches’ Voice website, Angel stated: “Things weren’t simple. There is constantly a typical adjustment process that every player need to face however I went through a hard individual situation far from the game.

    ” My other half ended up being ill when we concerned England and she invested nearly 6 months in healthcare facility when we had our first kid.

    ” However the league itself had its own troubles. The language, the weather, the physicality and speed of the competition.

    Juan Pablo Angel commemorates a goal for Villa (Rui Vieira/PA)

    “And, in terms of organisation, the club wasn’t really prepared when it came to bringing in overseas players from our region.”

    Angel’s remain in the midlands accompanied regular supervisory changes, with Gregory prospered by Graham Taylor, David O’Leary and Martin O’Neill.

    However the Colombian settled at the club and went on to score more than 60 goals in his 6 and a half seasons.

    The emphasize was a dazzling campaign under O’Leary in 2003-04, when Villa ended up sixth in the Premier League and reached the semi-finals of the League Cup.

    A little bit of classic @JuanPabloAngel for #GoalOfTheDay! #AVFC pic.twitter.com/pwcc9N4PO2

    — Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) Might 26, 2020

    Angel stated: “That season, I scored 23 goals in all competitions. The truth is that I didn’t really understand the scale of what that meant in a league like the Premier League. It was probably one of the best things that happened to me.”

    Angel left Villa Park in April 2007 and went on to play for New York City Red Bulls, Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas U.S.A. prior to going back to his first club, Atletico Nacional, in his home city of Medellin. He retired in December 2014.

    ID:427591: cQx.

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