In the years 2021-2024 Ernest Muci was a player of Legia Warsaw. During this time, the Albanian played in 114 matches in all competitions, in which he scored 21 goals and recorded 10 assists. It was Muci who was one of Legia's heroes in the memorable match with Aston Villa (3:2) in the group stage of the Europa Conference League. Legia did not plan to sell him before the end of the 23/24 season, but the offer from Besiktas Istanbul was one of the “impossible to refuse” ones. The Turkish club paid Legia as much as ten million euros, which was a sales record for the capital team.
– I will give it my all now. The fans have already shown me a lot of interest. I will play with pride in front of our audience – said Muci after arriving in Istanbul. – We worked hard for this transfer, but we managed to finalize it at the end of the window. Ernest will contribute to the development of Besiktas – added Huseyin Yucel, the vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board. At that time, the coach of Besiktas was Fernando Santos, a former coach of the Polish national team, who was eventually fired in mid-April.
In the second half of the previous Super Lig season, Muci scored four goals in seventeen matches for Besiktas. This season, coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst did not use the Albanian at all in the matches against Galatasaray (5:0) and Samsunspor (2:0), because he rates the Portuguese Rafa Silva more highly. It is possible that this summer Muci will make a blockbuster transfer that will also earn Legia money.
Former Legia player to join Premier League. Big money for Legia Warsaw
The kontraspor.com portal writes more about this. According to information from journalists from Turkey, Muci will move to one of the Premier League clubs. We are talking about Aston Villa, one of the participants in the next edition of the Champions League. Besiktas is to earn 15 million euros from him, and additionally secured 4 million euros in bonuses. “The club from England still remembers the former Legia player from the fantastic matches between these clubs in the cups” – writes the “FootballScout” profile on the X portal.
Legia will also earn money on this transaction, as it has secured 10% of the amount from the next transfer involving Muci. Legia will thus pocket at least 1.5 million euros. Kontraspor.com adds that Muci will sign a four-year contract with Aston Villa. – We have a strong and deep squad. We will use it when necessary – said van Bronckhorst after the match with Samsunspor, answering a question about Muci.
Muci will therefore be the second most expensive player sold in Besiktas' history. The top player is Cenk Tosun, who joined Everton in January 2018 for 22.5 million euros. Earlier, there were reports in Turkish media that Frenchman Lucas Digne could be part of the deal between Aston Villa and Besiktas, but this has not been confirmed yet.
If Muci's transfer goes through, he will be the ninth player brought in by Aston Villa during the summer window. The club has spent close to €180m on reinforcements so far, with the most paid for Amadou Onana (€59.3m from Everton) and Ian Maatsen (€44.5m from Chelsea).