Aston Villa fans might be getting excited about the potential of young striker Cameron Archer as a result of his excellent performances on loan at Middlesbrough, but Jhon Duran also appears to have a bright future in Unai Emery’s team.
The 19-year-old, who joined from Chicago Fire in the January transfer window, certainly seems to have the necessary attributes to succeed as a Premier League striker, and he could potentially emulate Tammy Abraham’s performances in a Villa shirt in the future.
Could Duran be Villa’s next Abraham?
It is a testament to the belief that Emery has in Duran that both Archer and Danny Ings were allowed to depart Villa Park last month, with only the teenage Colombian forward arriving as an attacking reinforcement.
While the strong form of Ollie Watkins has meant that the January arrival is yet to start a game in Emery’s side, the 19-year-old has come off the bench in recent matches against Leicester City, Manchester City and Arsenal.
Having progressed through the academy at Envigado, for whom he scored nine goals in 47 appearances, Duran earned a move to the MLS with Chicago Fire in 2022.
He continued to impress in Illinois and contributed an impressive eight goals and six assists in just 28 appearances for Ezra Hendrickson’s side, so it was no surprise that he earned a move to the Premier League last month.
Football talent scout Jacek Kulig certainly rates Duran highly, describing him as a “complete forward” and “counter-attacking weapon” in his scout report on the Colombian forward in 2022.
While Watkins has impressed recently, scoring in each of his last four league games, he has managed just 35 goals in 101 appearances for the Villans. This suggests that he lacks the clinical ability of someone like Abraham, who starred in a loan spell at Villa Park in the 2018/19 Championship campaign.
The former Chelsea marksman claimed 26 goals and three assists in just 40 appearances for the Midlands club, playing a huge part in their promotion back to the top flight that year, with Villa having missed someone of that goalscoring ability in their ranks ever since. Albeit at a higher level, nobody has scored more than 14 goals in a single campaign since their Premier League return.
There were high hopes for Archer after his performances in the Championship with Preston last season, where he netted seven times in 20 appearances, but he failed to find the net in seven brief substitute appearances for Villa this term and was sent back to the second tier on loan last month.
The fact that Duran was kept at the club, despite being two years Archer’s junior and not possessing any prior experience in English football, shows just how highly he is rated by Emery at Villa Park.
If the teenager can live up to his obvious potential and start firing in the goals in claret and blue as he did in Colombia and the USA, there seems no reason why he can’t be the next Abraham for Aston Villa.
