Player #933 for Aston Villa, Wesley Moraes Ferreira da Silva, known as Wesley, played as a centre forward for the club in the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.

Wesley was born in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, on 26 November 1996 and made his Villa debut at the age of 22 on Saturday, 10 August 2019, in the Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur.

Villa had signed Wesley from Club Brugge KV in July 2019 for Villa’s then club record fee of £22,500,000.

Following his debut, Wesley was an ever-present starter in the Premier League, making 20 starts through to Wednesday, 1 January 2020, when, after scoring to win the game for Villa at Turf Moor, he was tackled by Burnley defender Ben Mee, causing severe ACL damage which ruled Wesley out for the remainder of the season.

In an unpleasant twist of fate Villa ‘keeper Tom Heaton also suffered ACL damage in that game but whilst Heaton returned to the Villa squad a year on - making the substitutes bench for the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on 26th December 2020 - Wesley injury was yet to heal with a likely return date of later in the 2020-21 campaign after being named in Villa’s 25 man Villa squad for the season with Dean Smith reporting “It’s a box ticking exercise now, his aerobic cap has been built but it’s withstanding different pressures on the knee.”

During his debut season for Villa, Wesley scored 5 goals in 21 appearances.

Wesley returned to full training in February 2021, with the 24-year-old striker having been out of action for almost 14 months since suffering his ACL injury.

Dean Smith revealed: “Wesley had manipulation last week, and he looks a lot better and has been on the training ground with us already. That will continue, and I’m hopeful for progression with Wes.”

Wesley played 45 minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly during the international break in March 2021 - a match that represented his first return to ‘competitive’ action after 15 months out. However, a subsequent injury setback delayed his return to the first team squad once again.

Although to their credit, both parties persevered, Wesley’s Villa career was as good as over, making just three substitute appearances on his return to fitness in the 2020-21 season and one final appearance in 2021-22 before being loaned to former side Club Brugge KV.

Further loans would follow to Sport Club Internacional 🇧🇷 in 2022 and Levante UD 🇪🇸 in 2022-23 before Wesley was released on a free transfer to Stoke City in July 2023.

An unlucky player deserving of more.