Villa agree £7.8m fee for Cuellar

Aston Villa have agreed a £7.8m fee with Rangers for their highly-rated Spanish defender Carlos Cuellar. Villa invoked an exit clause in the player's contract for that amount after Cuellar, 26, made it known he wanted to play in the English Premier League. "My ambition has always been to play for Spain and I believe that playing in the biggest league in the world will help me realise that," he said.

Cuellar began his career at Spanish Tercera División side Calahorra before moving on to Segunda side Numancia. He spent two seasons in Numancia, making over sixty appearances, and then got his big move to La Liga side Osasuna. He became an important part of the Javier Aguirre side that finished fourth in the league in season 2004-05 and reached the final of the Copa del Rey. A few seasons later they reached the UEFA Cup semi-final in 2007, knocking Rangers out en route. During that same UEFA Cup 2006-07 campaign Cuéllar scored a first minute goal in the quarter finals at the BayArena against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in April, that was the fastest goal of the tournament that season.

Cuellar moved to Ibrox from Spanish side Osasuna last summer and enjoyed a superb debut season for the club, helping them to the Uefa Cup final and winning both the Clydesdale Bank SPL and Scottish Football Writers' Association player of the year awards.Cuellar is set to become Villa's sixth signing of the summer following manager Martin O'Neill's capture of Curtis Davies, Steve Sidwell, Luke Young, Nicky Shorey and Brad Friedel.