Player #958 for Aston Villa, Dominic Revan played as a centre back for the club in the 2018-19 season, making his sole appearance in the 2020-21 season’s FA Cup.

Revan was born on 19 September 2000.

A talented young sprinter who turned out for local athletics club Tipton Harriers. He went through his school years winning medals but wasn’t even playing for a junior football side when he joined Villa.

His big chance came when his older brother Marcus, who was 13 at the time and in the same age category as Jack Grealish, had been spotted by a scout and recommended to the club. Dominic was also invited along.

Although Marcus, now a musician and Sunday League footballer, was let go by Villa, Dominic and younger sibling Sebastian — now 17 and also a part of Villa’s under-23s side — were both signed up and recognised as players who could develop into professionals in the future.

Dominic was promoted to the first team squad by Dean Smith during the 2018-19 season and made his debut appearance in the Villa squad at the age of 18 on Saturday, 1 December 2018 in the 3-0 Championship win over Middlesbrough.

Revan went on to make 7 unused substitute appearances for Villa in the 2018-19 season before making his first team debut in the 2020-21 season aged 20 in the 1-4 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool on Friday, 8 January 2021.

Revan was named as captain for the club on his debut.

Revan was part of the youngest ever team to ever take the field for Villa in a professional game - aged 18.8 years on average - after the first team squad was forced into isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic which had seen a raft of players and staff testing positive for the virus in the week preceding the game.

Revan was also one of 16 debutants in the game - the most in a single game in Villa’s history and was also part of the starting XI made up of 11 debutants, the first time this had happened since Villa’s first professional fixture - also in the FA Cup - on Saturday, 13 December 1879 against Stafford Road.

Revan won all three of his tackles against Liverpool and made 14 clearances and showed himself ready to make a step up to future first team selection.

One Villa insider described Revan as “hard-working and humble” whilst another said “He’s very well-liked and is a great character.”

Indeed Revan was made captain for the FA Cup tie because of the way he exudes confidence under pressure but Villa saw an opportunity to help Dominic develop resilience.

Coaches at Villa knew that Revan was neat and tidy in possession and excellent in one-vs-one situations, but he needed to prove to them that he could tough it out against physical opponents in non-League football

As a result Villa sent Dominic out on loan to Conference Premier side Weymouth later in January 2021 with former Villa and Weymouth defender Shaun Teale backed Revan’s move saying:

“Nothing wrong with Weymouth. He is very young, league clubs would probably use him as a sub so going to a club like Weymouth will give him valuable game time.”

His new manager Brian Stock was likewise impressed:

“What I love about him is that he’s an out-and-out defender and every time the ball goes in behind, he looks like the favourite to win it.”

“His reading of the game is excellent but the biggest thing for me is that he’s a fantastic lad with a brilliant attitude. He goes about his business in the right way.”

Revan would subsequently be loaned out to League Two Northampton Town 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 from 31 Aug 2021 to 31 Dec 2021 before before being released from the Villa Youth set up under Steven Gerrard in July 2022 aged 21.