Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: J P Fear 
Date:Sunday July 29 2007
Time: 5:01PM
UK time is: 15:47:19
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Villa Sign Young American Defender
Aston Villa have signed 18 year old American defender Eric Lichaj.
The young defender, who was at the University of North Carolina will join up with Villa's youth academy.
According to 'Yanks Abroad' site the 6' defender is from Downers Grove and had played for the U17 and U20 USA teams.
A press officer from Villa called Claire Huggins (not heard of her and usually Phil Mepham is the spokesman) said:
'Eric has indeed joined Aston Villa. He's signed a professional contract, but will initially train with the Academy squad.'
His agent is also quoted, Steve Kelly said on Yanks Abroad: 'He signed a two year deal with options. He will initially be playing with reserves, but his goal is to some day play for the first team. Remember, he is only 18 years old. He was injured before he signed, but they saw his talent before that. He won't be playing until at least September (due to a broken foot).'
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Your Comments
be nice to see this work out, the marketing could be immense! Be good to see us get a tie in with a MLS team as well.
The Fear
One more for the future- all good!!!
silkie villain
Talking of American players, Skysports have revealed that Freddie Adu if about to sign for Benfica for $2million (£985k). 12 months ago he was about to be the new Pele, wouldnt it have been worth a punt at less than a million? With Randy's contacts surely we would have been in with a shout and it would also have given us loads of news coverage stateside!
Stourbridge Villan
Not a bad shout stourbridge, when you see the stupid money going round here, anyway wet spam will dive in soon with a daft offer.
silkie villain
Stourbridge Villan - I think they were refering to Pele's erection problems and not his football ability
myleftfoot
Stourbridge Villan - I suggested that a while back on the Who will we sign forum? and the idea was rubbished by other fans. I think he would be a great signing and could learn loads from Berger etc.
deano.avfc
He was touted as the mutt's nuts for ages. I figure if he was that good chelski or madrid would have snapped him up by now.
johnnyuk
After watching the fake ID club (god knows why) on a music channel it seems that Inter Milan were after him at one time
Christo
MON seems to have a thing about buying for the future... a good squad of raw young talent seems to be the order of the day. 2 years down the line this could be the foundation of another successful Villa era.
col8
Could be a good signing here. Hope the lad progresses and develops and makes his mark at the club.
glensider
Any players in are welcome. MON for the future of Villa.
UTV
*Holte*End*Star*
So thats Reo,Marlon and hop- a- long Cassidy, Not really what i expected! But im sure Martin knows best.
silkie villain
Most definitely one for the future.
sandgroanun
Great to see us bringing a lot of young kids in from all corners of the globe, however we have done this for years and I can only think of Hitzlsperger who went on to make the grade. Fingers crossed we'll have more success with this batch.
DeanoVilla
Valid point Deano. I think its fair to say though that the U.S. is now producing some decent young talent, so I'm not against us tapping into their grass roots resources. There's a gem out there somewhere, the hard part of course is landing him.
glensider
We seem to be picking up the younger talent reasonably easily, so our scouting network must be putting the groundwork in. So why are we hitting brick-walls with regards to first team players?
glensider
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