Ex-Celtic starlet compared to Real Madrid icon as he makes senior bow for Champions League outfit

Highly-rated Scotland youth international Aidan Borland has been tipped for the top after his impressive senior debut for Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup last night.

The 17-year-old came off the bench in last night’s 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Wycombe Wanderers, replacing Belgian international Amadou Onana for the final 28 minutes of the third round clash and made a big impression on the Villa fans, who have already made comparisons to one Real Madrid midfielder.

Borland left Celtic to join the EPL high fliers in August 2023 for a reported fee of £300,000, following in the footsteps of former academy talents Ben Doak, Liam Morrison and Josh Adam and was handed his first professional contract in April of this year after impressing the Villa backroom staff. He has recently captained the side in the UEFA Youth League, with reports claiming that Villa could end up paying more than £1million to the Scottish champions with performance add-ons as part of the deal that took him from Glasgow’s east end.

Despite appearing for just under half an hour, the Scottish starlet appears to have already made his mark on Villa fans, who took to social media site ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to herald the performance of the teenager, with one raving that he ‘reminded him of Luka Modric’. Others supporter branded him as a ‘tidy’ and ‘very impressive’, while they claimed he ‘imposed himself well, despite his stature’, with another saying they “saw him last season against Forest 23s and it was a walk in the park for him.”

The young midfielder took to social media himself to mark the occasion, writing on ‘X’: “Unbelievable feeling and a dream come true to have made my professional debut for Aston Villa.”

Heralded by academy boss Mark Harrison in May, he said: “We’ve been really pleased with his progress which has seen him become a regular in our Under 21s team at the age of 16. He is an intelligent, hard-working, technically efficient midfielder with the ability to score from long range. We look forward to working with him over the next few years and seeing how he progresses.”

Borland has been capped regularly by Scotland at under-16 and 17 level, but was upgraded to the under-19 squad earlier this month for the friendlies clash against Azerbaijan, with new head coach Neil MacFarlane starting him in midfield.