Aston Villa to face Sevilla for the little-known Antonio Puerta Trophy
Aston Villa will play Sevilla on Friday in a friendly for the Antonio Puerta Trophy, awarded since 2008 in memory of the former Sevilla player, becoming the first English club invited to the fixture.
On Friday, Aston Villa will travel to Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium to compete for a trophy largely unknown outside Spain — the Antonio Puerta Trophy.
The friendly match honours Sevilla academy product Antonio Puerta, who died in August 2007 at age 22. Puerta suffered a cardiac arrest during a match against Getafe and, after initially seeming to recover enough to walk to the dressing room, collapsed again and passed away three days later in hospital.
His death shocked Spanish football, as Puerta was a homegrown Sevilla talent. He debuted for the first team in the 2003-04 season, went on to make 88 appearances for the club and one for the Spanish national team in 2006, and helped Sevilla win five trophies within 15 months, including back-to-back Uefa Cup titles — the competition now known as the Europa League.
A year after his passing, Sevilla established a trophy in his name, which has grown from a modest pre-season fixture into an annual club tradition. This year marks the 15th edition and is notable because Aston Villa is the first English club ever invited to take part.
There's a personal link between the two sides as well: Villa manager Unai Emery will return to the stadium where he had one of the most successful stretches of his coaching career, having managed Sevilla from 2013 to 2016 and won the Europa League three times in a row during that period.
Sevilla have dominated the fixture, winning 12 of the previous 14 editions, with only Granada and Boca Juniors managing to defeat them. The early years featured only Spanish opponents, but since Boca Juniors broke that pattern as the first overseas team in 2016, international clubs including Roma, Schalke, Independiente del Valle, Al-Ittihad and Al-Qadsiah have also taken part.
For Villa, Leon Goretzka has travelled with the squad following recovery from a knee injury and could feature, while striker Brian Madjo is available again after being sidelined since the club's Uefa Super Cup defeat to Paris St-Germain in August. Taylor Harwood-Bellis will also be looking for additional playing time.
