Aberdeen have agreed a significant fee to sell Fletcher Boyd to Aston Villa.
The midfielder became the club's third-youngest player and youngest-ever goalscorer when he debuted and netted against Hibernian in a 4-0 win at Easter Road at the end of the 2023/24 season. He was 16 years, three months, 16 days old.
Boyd has since played 12 times for Aberdeen's senior team and was on the bench for their Scottish Cup final win over Celtic in May.
He will now move south, pending the outcome of a FIFA minor’s application, for what Aberdeen describe as a 'significant undisclosed fee'.
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"Fletcher is not one we had planned or wanted to sell at this time, but we’ve had to take this approach based on the circumstances we found ourselves in," Director of Football Steven Gunn told afc.co.uk.
"It was made very clear to us that Fletcher wished to explore this opportunity and that signing any contract extension beyond the less than two years remaining on his current agreement was going to be very unlikely.
"Therefore, we felt that now was the optimal time to trade him to not only maximise our value in the short term, but also to ensure there is significant potential upside for AFC in the future should Fletcher develop the way we all hope he does.
"We have already explained publicly the huge challenges faced not only by Aberdeen, but almost all Scottish clubs in this area. We also explained the subsequent adjustments we’ve made to our transition phase strategy as a result.
"We will closely monitor the outcomes of those changes in the months and years ahead."
