Leon Bailey, born on 9 August 1997 (age 29), is a Jamaica international winger whose career has taken him from early European development football to a regular first-team role at Aston Villa. Primarily used on the right, he wears squad number 31 and remains a live part of Villa’s senior picture in 2025-26.
Bailey’s route was not especially tidy, but it was useful. His early moves around Europe gave him senior football before the bigger stages arrived, and his breakthrough at Genk put him on the radar beyond Belgium. Bayer Leverkusen followed, where his pace and left-footed threat from the flank became more than potential.
Aston Villa signed him from Leverkusen in 2021, and his best league return came in 2023-24, when he scored 10 goals in 35 appearances. That was the season when the output matched the talent often enough to make the point without much debate.
The 2025-26 campaign has been split between clubs: Bailey made seven league appearances for Roma before adding 13 league appearances for Aston Villa. He has also remained involved with Jamaica, making two World Cup qualifying appearances in North and Central America and three Gold Cup appearances, scoring once.
His current market value is around £18.5m, according to Transfermarkt. Bailey’s career is now that of an established wide player: developed across Europe, tested in the Bundesliga, and still relevant in the Premier League with Aston Villa.
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