Aston Villa are interested in a move to bring Vitinha to the Premier League on transfer deadline day.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by French media outlet Foot Mercato, who claim that, despite Unai Emery having already secured the signing of Jhon Duran this month, following Danny Ings' move to West Ham United, Villa are still in the market for another centre-forward over the remainder of the January window - with the SC Braga striker emerging as a potential target.

The report goes on to state that Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton are also interested in a late move for the 22-year-old, while the Liga Portugal side are demanding that the Portugal U21 international's €30m (£26.5m) release clause is met if the youngster is to leave the Estadio Municipal de Braga prior to this evening's transfer deadline.

Benzema 2.0

Considering just how impressive Vitinha has been in Portugal so far this season, coupled with the 22-year-old's enormous scope for future development, it is not difficult to understand why Emery would be interested in a late move for the Braga sensation.

Indeed, over his 17 Liga Portugal appearances - only 12 of which have come as starts - in the current campaign, the £12.75m-rated talent has been in sensational attacking form, having already scored seven goals, registered two assists and created three big chances, as well as taking an average of 2.8 shots, making 0.9 key passes and completing 1.2 dribbles per game.

These returns have seen the player who football talent scout Jacek Kulig dubbed a "complete striker" average an extremely impressive Sofascore statistical rating of 7.01, currently ranking him as Carlos Carvalhal's 11th-best performer in the league - playing a key role in second-placed Braga's extraordinary 2022/23 campaign thus far.

So exciting a prospect is Vitinha that the aforementioned Kulig went as far as to compare the Portugal youth international to none other than legendary Real Madrid centre-forward Karim Benzema, as well as listing the 22-year-old's strengths as his "pace, finishing, instinct, movement, heading, technique, ball control, flair, versatility."

As such, should Emrey manage to get a last-minute deal over the line for Vitinha on Tuesday, the Spaniard could well have unearthed the next Benzema-esque talent at Villa Park - a prospect that is sure to be incredibly tantalising for everyone involved with the Premier League club.

However, with Fabrizio Romano recently revealing in a post on Twitter that French side Olympique de Marseille have now reached an initial agreement with Braga for the centre-forward, should the English club wish to have any chance of landing Vitinha in the coming hours, they simply must act as quickly as possible.