Saturday 9 June 2018 17:09, UK
Atalanta have exercised their option to sign Aston Villa goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini in a £3.75m deal.
The 23-year-old former Manchester United youngster, who was born in Bologna, initially moved to the Italian club in January 2017 on an 18-month loan deal.
Gollini had signed for Villa from Verona the previous summer and made 20 Championship appearances for them in the first half of the 2016/17 campaign.
However, he eventually fell out of favour after Steve Bruce replaced Roberto Di Matteo as manager and did not feature for Villa after a 1-0 defeat at Norwich on December 13, 2016.
He was allowed to return to Italy to join Atalanta on loan on January 13, 2017.
Gollini made his first appearance for Atalanta on March 19, 2017 and went on to play another three games before the end of that season.
He made a further nine appearances for the Serie A club last term and clearly impressed them enough to earn a permanent transfer home.
Villa need to find £40m to comply with Financial Fair Play rules after failing to win promotion back to the Premier League, so the fee for Gollini will make a small dent in that sum.
