Player #920 for Aston Villa, Ørjan Håskjold Nyland, played as a goalkeeper for the club in the 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.

Nyland was the 98th custodian of the Villa goal in professional football.

Ørjan was born in Volda, Norway, on 10 September 1990.

Steve Bruce had signed Nyland for Villa from FC Ingolstadt on 7 August 2018 for a fee of £2,700,000.

Nyland made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 11 August 2018, aged 27, in the 3-2 Championship win over Wigan Athletic.

Nyland would go on to make 23 appearances in total in his debut season before injury ruled him out for the season from 1 January 2019.

In total, Nyland conceded 34 goals across his 23 appearances at a ratio of 1.48 goals per game. Those figures were a significant improvement on his replacement, Lovre Kalinić (1.88), but lagged a long way behind his ultimate successor to the end of the 2018-19 season, Jed Steer (1.00).

Although Nyland would play no part in the 2018-19 season beyond the turn of the year, he would be retained in the Villa squad ahead of their return to Premier League football as third-choice keeper.

Injuries to Jed Steer meant Nyland was initially promoted to substitute goalkeeper behind Villa’s newly arrived number one Tom Heaton for much of the first half of the 2019-20 season and was brought on as sub ‘keeper twice before long-term injuries to Jed Steer and Tom Heaton propelled Nyland to Villa’s #1 ‘keeper.

With young Matija Šarkić yet to be recalled from his loan spell, Nyland was Villa’s only goalkeeping option until the arrival on loan of Pepe Reina in mid-January 2020.

After an appearance in each of the Premier League, EFL and FA Cup games in January 2020, including an outstanding performance in the two-legged EFL Cup semi-final against Leicester City, Nyland ceded the jersey to Reina.

Nyland did, however, regain the number one position post the mid-season suspension of football due to the COVID-19 pandemic after Reina had put in a particularly troubling performance in the final game before the suspension of the league in the 1-4 defeat at Leicester City on Monday, 9 March 2020.

Before that, Nyland had kept goal for Villa in the EFL Cup final at Wembley on Sunday, 1 March 2020, with his goalkeeper exploits having played no small part in Villa reaching their ninth final.

Despite being reinstated to the team from the restart, Nyland’s form suffered, and after 4 games, he was replaced once again by Pepe Reina without making a further appearance in 2019-20.

For 2020-21, Villa signed Emiliano Martinez as their No. 1 ‘keeper with Jed Steer as backup. With Tom Heaton recovering from his career-interrupting injury, there would be no space for Nyland, and in September 2020, he was released by the club after 36 appearances across his 3 seasons.

Nyland made his final appearance for Villa in the Second Round of the 2020-21 EFL Cup versus Burton Albion on Tuesday, 15 September 2020. Across his 36 appearances, Nyland conceded 53 goals at a ratio of 1.47 goals per game whilst keeping 7 clean sheets.

Nyland had played under Steve Bruce and Dean Smith.