Scouting Aston Villa transfer target: Mubarak Wakaso
By Josh Tonti
A report from Ghana’s leading football site suggests Aston Villa is heavily interested in Ghanaian winger, Mubarak Wakaso. Wakaso, 26, is a 2014 World Cup veteran.
Ghana Soccernet says Aston Villa have made soon-to-be 27-year old winger Mubarak Wakaso one of their summer transfer targets.
Wakaso has 12 career goals with the Black Stars in his 49 career appearances. A left winger by trade, Wakaso is heavily utilized in Ghana’s traditional 4-2-2-2 set-up alongside Andre & Jordan Ayew. Unlike his stable international career, Wakaso has jumped from club to club over his career, rarely staying for more than one year.
Since 2011, Wakaso has featured for Spanish sides: Elche, Villareal, Espanyol, Las Palmas, and Granada, in addition to Rubin Kazan of the Russian Premier League and Greek Superleague powerhouse, Panathinaikos.
He’s currently contracted to Panathinaikos, signing a 3-year deal in the summer of 2016. After barely playing in the fall, Wakaso was loaned to Granada in the January window. He went on to score one goal in eleven matches as the Spanish club was relegated from La Liga. For what it’s worth, he was named the club’s January signing of the season.
Wakaso is likely available considering his current status at Panathinaikos. With other U.K. clubs like Swansea City and Reading asking around, the transfer fee could rise a bit.
Aston Villa’s interest in Wakaso is curious. Villa could use another attacking threat in the mold of a winger/attacking midfielder, but Wakaso’s career club form is a bit of a concern. He’s never scored more than three goals in a league season before, and that was back with Espanyol in 2012/2013. Moreover, he has just 13 in his career over 199 matches. However, his form with Ghana suggests he’s capable secondary attacker with 12 in 49.
Next: Aston Villa facing competition for Johnstone
Standing at 5’7″, Wakaso is a fast and physical winger. He may be a bit on the smaller side, but he’s definitely capable of holding his own in the English Championship.
WhoScored has a complete breakdown with Granada – in which he played very well in a number of attacking positions. Somehow, he accumulated six yellow cards and one sending off in 870 minutes of match time (?!) In a vacuum, Wakaso could be a very fitting signing for Aston Villa given appropriate transfer sum, wages, and length of deal.