Who is Ørjan Nyland?

You have no doubt read or heard by now that Aston Villa announced the signing of Norway international goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland for an undisclosed fee last night. The fee is rumoured to be around £720k.

The 27-year-old signed a three-year contract from German side FC Ingolstadt but who is he?

Full name Ørjan Håskjold Nyland was born in Volda, Norway on the 10th September 1990. As a youngster, he competed in handball, alpine skiing and of course football. During his youth days, he played for Mork IL and Volda TI before joining Hødd in 2007.

Nyland spent five years with Hødd, making 59 appearances and contributed to his side winning 2012 Norwegian Football Cup Final where he went on to make several crucial saves and earn himself the man of the match award.

Following that season the keeper was available on a free transfer and looked set to sign for either Start or Sogndal but he opted for Molde where he would have to compete with two other goalkeepers for the starting place.

He was given chances in the cup and when the first-choice keeper, Espen Bugge Pettersen picked up an injury, former Manchester United striker and manager of Molde at the time Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer made Nyland his number 1 goalkeeper.

During his two years with Molde, he won the Tippeligaen and the Cupen and broke into the Norway national side.

In 2015, Nyland signed a four year deal for newly promoted Ingolstadt in Germany. During his time they spent two seasons in the Bundesliga and last season in Bundesliga 2.

Whoscored.com state that the goalkeeper’s strengths are in his concentration and long passing but what worries me most is they say his weakness is close range shots.

Nyland is now the fourth first-team goalkeeper at Aston Villa alongside Jed Steer, Mark Bunn and recently signed loanee Andre Moreira. It will be interesting to see who Steve Bruce opts to go with moving forward especially after Steer impressed in Villa’s 3-1 win over Hull on Monday night.