Louie Barry leaves Aston Villa for Sheffield Wednesday after solitary senior outing | OneFootball

Louie Barry’s six-and-a-half year Aston Villa stint has ended with a permanent move to Sheffield Wednesday.

The 23-year-old forward scored in an FA Cup tie at Liverpool. According to ExpressAndStar.com, Villa inserted a sell-on clause and a matching rights clause, and he is the second Villa player to join Wednesday this month after defender Sil Swinkels.

Barry, a boyhood Villa fan, joined from Barcelona for an initial £880,000 in January 2020 after a switch from Albion six months earlier. The Baggies received no compensation after a Fifa ruling that they had not formally offered a scholarship.

Despite the early hype, his Villa career never ignited, though it proved lucrative, with a contract signed in January last year worth around £35,000 a week. His only senior outing came in the 2021 FA Cup third round, when a Covid outbreak at Bodymoor Heath forced Villa to field their youth team. He scored in a 4-1 defeat to the then Premier League champions, the high point of his time.

Most of his Villa years were spent on loan, notably at Stockport County, where he helped win League Two promotion in 2024. A £3.5 million switch to Hull City was close last summer before an EFL sanction for late payments scuppered the deal. He started last season at Sheffield United, rejoined Stockport in January, and missed out on Championship promotion via the play-offs.

Source: ExpressAndStar.com