Player #894 for Aston Villa, Ritchie Ria Alfons De Laet, known as Ritchie De Laet, played as a right back for the club between 2016-17 and 2018-19, making 14 appearances.

Ritchie was born in Antwerp on 28 November 1988

Roberto Di Matteo had signed Ritchie from Leicester City for £2,070,000 on 23 August 2016 as part of a raft of signings following Villa’s relegation from the Premier League the previous season.

The arrival of De Laet was welcome given his provenance of having arrived from surprise reigning Premier League champions Leicester City; however, injuries throughout his time with Villa meant that De Laet couldn’t ever get an extended run in the side.

De Laet made his debut appearance for Villa under Di Matteo in the 1-3 defeat to Bristol City on Saturday, 27 August 2016, aged 27, and he would start the next two games before succumbing to his first season ravaging injury.

By the time De Laet returned from injury, Di Matteo had gone, and new Villa boss Steve Bruce had been in post for almost a year. De Laet’s appearances were sporadic, making just four starts in 2017-18 - and he was sent out on loan by Bruce to his boyhood club Royal Antwerp FC to the end of the campaign, with Ahmed Elmohamady being Villa’s first-choice right back.

For 2018-19, Bruce gave De Laet two starts in the EFL Cup before sending him out on loan to Melbourne City from 14 September 2018 to the end of the season.

De Laet was released in July 2019, aged 30.

De Laet had made his final appearance for Villa on Tuesday, 28 August 2018, aged 29, under Steve Bruce, having failed to make any squad under Bruce’s successor, Dean Smith.