Aston Villa Leave Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Madjo Out of Champions League
New Aston Villa signing Taylor Harwood-Bellis has been omitted from Aston Villa’s Champions League squad of 23 players, along with Modou Keba Cisse and Brian Madjo. Villa’s maximum List A squad has been reduced from 25 to 23 players after the club failed to meet the minimum quota of eight locally trained players.
“It is hard, the decision we took, and for the players,” said Unai Emery, at his press conference ahead of Villa’s weekend clash with Hull City. “To decide, it is through the analysis of how we are expecting to be until January. We are going to play eight matches.
“Taylor arrived as the last one, and we can get the balance with Lamare Bogarde, and we can even play [Boubacar] Kamara. We tried to analyse it deeply. Taylor will be here for a long time, and hopefully, we will have the opportunity to play in Europe with us, in January maybe, and the next few years. Madjo is 17 years old and is so, so young. He will have, for sure, more opportunities to play with us this year and the next years in Europe.”
Harwood-Bellis essentially suffers the same fate as Donyell Malen did when he signed for Villa. Malen had spoken of how much he was looking forward to playing for Villa in the Champions League during his first in-house interview with the club, only to subsequently be left out from the squad for the knockout stages.
Villa will instead look to Victor Lindelöf as their starting option going into the Champions League. It leaves Villa in the curious position of entering Europe’s top competition relying on Ezri Konsa’s former back-up rather than the player signed as his replacement.
Brian Madjo can also consider himself unfortunate. While the 17-year-old has never played a league game for Villa, he showed enough against PSG in the Super Cup to suggest he could have had a part to play against European defences in the tournament.
If Villa progress through the league stage, there will be an opportunity for both Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Madjo to join the squad. Clubs that progress can make a maximum of three changes to the squad before the February 4 deadline.
Aston Villa Champions League Squad 2026/27
Goalkeepers
| Player | Nationality | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Zion Suzuki | Japan | 24 |
| Marco Bizot | Netherlands | 35 |
| James Wright | England | 21 |
Defenders
| Player | Nationality | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Matty Cash | Poland | 29 |
| Victor Lindelöf | Sweden | 32 |
| Tyrone Mings | England | 33 |
| Matteo Ruggeri | Italy | 24 |
| Pau Torres | Spain | 29 |
| Ian Maatsen | Netherlands | 24 |
| Lamare Bogarde | Netherlands | 22 |
| Aaron Wan-Bissaka | DR Congo | 28 |
Midfielders
| Player | Nationality | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Ross Barkley | England | 32 |
| John McGinn | Scotland | 31 |
| Boubacar Kamara | France | 26 |
| Leon Goretzka | Germany | 31 |
| João Gomes | Brazil | 25 |
| Johan Manzambi | Switzerland | 20 |
Forwards
| Player | Nationality | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Emiliano Buendía | Argentina | 29 |
| Nicolas Jackson | Senegal | 25 |
| Alejandro Garnacho | Argentina | 22 |
| Tammy Abraham | England | 28 |
| Ibrahim Mbaye | Senegal | 18 |
| Alysson | Brazil | 20 |
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