Aston Villa’s Interest in Julián Quiñones Runs Into a 2029 Contract

Aston Villa spent this summer’s World Cup with scouts trained on one man: Julián Quiñones. Contacts with his camp have intensified since Mexico’s exit in the round of 16, though no formal bid exists yet.

Al-Qadsiah renewed his contract to 2029 back in May. A reported Chelsea bid turned out to be fiction. And Villa’s own budget is stretched thin heading into a Champions League season. None of that has cooled the club’s pursuit of Saudi Arabia’s reigning top scorer.

Villa’s Scouts Tracked Him Through the Whole Tournament

Sacha Tavolieri, a transfer reporter for Sky Sport Switzerland, broke the story. Villa scouts, according to his reporting, closely observed Quiñones throughout the World Cup and came away convinced enough to reach out to his representatives directly.

The report spread fast, picked up within hours by outlets across England and Mexico. Unai Emery, Villa’s manager, just delivered a Europa League title last season and a fourth-place Premier League finish that secured Champions League football for next season. He wants another proven finisher before that campaign starts.

A Golden Boot Season Made the Case

Before this World Cup, Quiñones barely registered on the international stage. He had never really impressed for Mexico, scoring just twice in 22 appearances heading into the tournament, according to bet365 News.

Then everything changed. On 11 June 2026, he scored the opening goal of the tournament in a 2-0 win over South Africa and was named Man of the Match.

In the round of 32 against Ecuador, he scored again and was named Man of the Match for a second time, sending Mexico into the round of 16. There, a 3-2 defeat to England at the Azteca ended the run.

Club form backed it up. On 21 May 2026, he scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 away win over Al-Ittihad, enough to finish the season as the Saudi Pro League’s top scorer and overtake Ivan Toney on the final day of the campaign. Four days later, he signed a new contract with Al-Qadsiah running to 2029.

FotMob’s tracking shows 2,724 minutes played at an average rating of 8.0 last season, the kind of workload-to-output ratio that turns Premier League heads.

The Al-Qadsiah Wall

Three Years Still on the Clock

That contract extension leaves little urgency on the Saudi side. Aston Villa have yet to make an offer to the Saudi Pro League club, and Quiñones still has three years left on a deal signed through 2029, finalized weeks before Villa’s interest went public.

Money adds another layer. Al-Qadsiah paid Club América a reported $16 million for Quiñones in June 2024, making him the most expensive player ever sold by a Mexican club at the time. That fee, plus two seasons of Golden Boot form, gives the Saudi side real bargaining power.

Chelsea’s Bid That Wasn’t

A separate suitor briefly muddied the picture. Reports out of Saudi Arabia suggested Chelsea had already submitted a formal offer for the 29-year-old, but transfer insider Fabrizio Romano clarified on X that the Blues had made no official bid despite the speculation.

That leaves Villa in arguably the stronger position. It has moved past admiration into actual conversations with Quiñones’ camp. Chelsea, for now, has not.

A Budget Already Under Strain

Villa’s pursuit comes loaded with its own complications. The club appears hamstrung in its ability to spend big cash this summer, with suggestions it could have to sell players before it can sign any.

His age, 29, is one issue. His Saudi Arabian wages are another. Both, in CaughtOffside’s assessment, could make a deal tricky under the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, known as PSR, as Villa tries to stay within UEFA’s own spending limits.

A few other pieces of Villa’s squad puzzle are moving at the same time.

• Ollie Watkins – the club’s main striker is being linked with a move to Fenerbahce, with Turkish reports pointing to contact between the clubs.
• Amadou Onana – recruiting a midfielder became a priority after his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury.
• Douglas Luiz – returned to Juventus once his loan spell at Villa Park ended.
• Morgan Rogers – his potential departure could accelerate a move for Quiñones, though the club insists he is not going anywhere.

None of it changes the top line. Quiñones offers the mobility and finishing that fits Emery’s preferred attacking profile, comfortable drifting wide, pressing aggressively and attacking space in behind. That is exactly the kind of forward Villa has been missing.

From a Three-Hour Boat Ride to Mexico’s Front Line

Quiñones’ path here is unusual even by football’s standards. He was born in Magüí Payán, a town in Colombia’s Nariño region, and is of Afro-Colombian descent. His childhood was shaped by poverty severe enough that reaching a telephone meant a three-hour boat ride.

His route to the top was not instant. He started at Futbol Paz, an academy in Cali, and a 50-goal season in 2014-15 got Tigres UANL’s attention. He made his professional debut in January 2016, scoring twice against Cruz Azul in the Copa MX.

A move to Atlas followed, where he won back-to-back Liga MX titles in 2021-22, before a reported $9.2 million transfer took him to Club América in 2023.

He represented Colombia at youth level before choosing Mexico as an adult. In May 2023, he turned down a call-up to Colombia’s senior team after living in Mexico since he was 17.

That September, he joined Mexico’s training camp, having already declared his intention to represent the country. His naturalization went through that October, his first call-up came the following month, and he made his debut in a CONCACAF Nations League match against Honduras on 17 November 2023.

This is not his first Premier League flirtation either. Leeds United had him on their radar back in the summer of 2022, years before Al-Qadsiah or the World Cup entered the picture. Genoa and Atlético Madrid have also been credited with interest this window. In 2025, he played a key role as Al-Qadsiah reached the King’s Cup final, before losing to Al Ittihad.

Would Villa’s Wages Even Beat Saudi Arabia’s?

Maybe not. Some of the earliest reports described Villa’s approach as bold enough to pay Quiñones more than Emiliano Martínez, the club’s Argentine goalkeeper, currently earns. The reporting since then tells a more complicated story about money.

The wages on offer in Saudi Arabia are enormous, and Villa might struggle to match what Al-Qadsiah is paying Quiñones, according to TeamTalk’s reporting on the pursuit. That detail undercuts the assumption that kicked off this transfer chatter.

His market value sits at just €14 million on Transfermarkt (about $15 million). CaughtOffside expects any real transfer fee to land well above €20 million, given the World Cup exposure and Golden Boot form behind it.

Here is where the reporting solidly stands, and where it doesn’t.

• What we know: Villa scouted Quiñones throughout the World Cup and made direct contact with his representatives, per Sky Sport Switzerland.
• What we know: Al-Qadsiah handed him a contract through 2029 in May, and Chelsea has not filed a formal bid despite conflicting reports.

• What’s unconfirmed: Whether Villa will submit a formal offer, and for how much.
• What’s unconfirmed: Whether any Villa salary offer would actually top what Emiliano Martínez earns at the club.

Supporters Have Their Doubts

Aston Villa supporters are furious over the transfer links to Mexico’s four-goal World Cup sensation, questioning his age and his lack of European experience despite a Golden Boot-winning season in Saudi Arabia.

gonna have to take a ridiculous wage cut and i still think we could just invest money elsewhere

Isaac, posting on X as @avfcisaac, wasn’t alone in that view.

“Age would just put me off move on,” wrote Jason Cameron, another Villa supporter, on X.

Others reached for a specific cautionary tale. “This stinks of Guessand 2.0 for me,” wrote Milan Rnić, invoking Evann Guessand, a forward whose Villa career has yet to win over some of the club’s own fans.

Not everyone covering the club agrees the backlash is fair. Football Insider’s own reporting called the criticism overblown, arguing Quiñones still has the makings of a Premier League success if Villa gets a deal over the line.

No bid has landed on Al-Qadsiah’s desk. Quiñones, for his part, just keeps scoring.