Two years ago Johan Manzambi was an unknown teenager. Next month the 20-year-old could be named young talent of the year at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, having made his senior debut for Freiburg only in 2024.
His breakout season in Germany last term convinced Aston Villa to pay more than £50m for a player with just 47 club starts to his name. The gamble has already produced a moment: Manzambi scored on his full Villa debut to help secure the club’s first Premier League win of the season. On Tuesday he is due to face Scotland with Switzerland in the Nations League, looking to continue his progression.
His international record is short but striking. Manzambi scored three goals in four games for Switzerland at the World Cup before a knee injury ended his tournament, only a year after making his full international debut. That debut came against Mexico in June 2025, and he found the net in his second appearance, against the United States.
The company he now keeps underlines how quickly he has moved. Manzambi is in the running for the best young player in the world award alongside Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, Real Madrid’s Yan Diomande and new Manchester City midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi.
Those who coached him early on remember a different sort of player. Bernhard Weis, who gave Manzambi his debut for Freiburg Under-19s, said: “He is playing for the professionals and he comes to us at the academy and brings some dirty clothes. He didn’t have a washing machine so he comes here and washes some clothes. I would speak with him and then he would pick up some young guys from the under-13s, under-14s and take them to the train station. He would see the guys and say, ‘come with me, I’ll take you to the station’, so they could get home. That’s Johan Manzambi.”
Weis, however, did not expect a Ballon d’Or nomination arriving so soon. “I didn’t see that. I saw something for the first team, for us, but this way, no chance,” he said. “The first half year at Freiburg it was not so easy for him, he’s not so strong and he’s not so stable. He put on five kilos and then he thought, ‘now I go, it’s the right moment, I will be faster and stronger’.”
Massimo Lombardo, Servette’s academy director, first worked with Manzambi when he was 15 and oversaw his early development before the player moved to Freiburg as a 17-year-old in 2023. “It is a real surprise for many people, that he can do something special so quickly,” he said. “For me, the difference he can make is because of his mentality, personality, enthusiasm and courage. He has the technical skills and tactical skills and the physical possibility now to perform in England. Mentally he was always a player who, when he came into the training session and games, always wanted to do something important. You can see that as a player who starts with Freiburg, he took his chance. I can remember his second game with Switzerland, against the USA and he scored. It was always important for him to come into the game and to do something.”
Last season Manzambi was named the Europa League’s Young Player of the Season as Freiburg lost the final to Villa in May, scoring 12 goals in 61 appearances. He also learned German in three months, which helped him move swiftly from the academy to the first team, making his debut against Heidenheim a year after joining. Among Bundesliga players in his position last season, he ranked first for 10-plus metre progressive carries (116), shot-ending carries (13) and fouls won (78).
Villa knew he would move this summer, making it a case of now or never for Unai Emery’s side. Had Manzambi gone to Newcastle instead, Villa believed his next move would have put him out of their financial reach. Newcastle were always wary of being hijacked, having previously lost Victor Munoz to Liverpool, and while they agreed a deal with Freiburg they never got a yes from the player. Villa then turned the versatile forward into the most expensive Swiss player in history, surpassing Granit Xhaka’s £38.25m move from Borussia Mönchengladbach to Arsenal 10 years ago, and signed him to a five-year deal.
Weis believes the move will not be the last one. “I think Aston Villa is the right club for him. He will play every time when he is fit and that’s the right way. Then I think he plays two seasons at Villa and then he goes to the next step,” he said. “After the World Cup I said he must go to the Premier League. Bayern Munich were mentioned, he didn’t go to Dortmund, Leverkusen. It’s the right way.”
Freiburg have made light of his absence. They went into the international break unbeaten and sitting third, having topped the Bundesliga after three straight opening wins. Without him they have won six of their seven games in all competitions, scoring 24 goals, although boss Julian Schuster said earlier this month that he had hoped to keep the player.
It was the same story at Servette, where Lombardo fought to keep his young talent but admitted Manzambi had made the right decisions. “We wanted him to stay with us, we gave him a contract but he wouldn’t sign and history would say it’s a good way, he came to Freiburg and played with the under-19s and was always improving,” he said. “Then Johan came into the first team and performed so well he started to play from the beginning and the coach couldn’t move him from the starting XI. With us he was incredible, he wanted to stay on the pitch to improve, to stay in the games and he had a lot of personality at 15. You can see into a group of young players who has the personality to speak. He has a lot of personality. Other players were stronger and quicker but he trained with enthusiasm and I saw a young player who wanted to do something special.”