Ajani Burchall has extended his stay at Aston Villa after agreeing to the terms of an undisclosed new deal.

The Bermuda winger will continue his development at the Premier League club’s Academy under manager Mark Harrison, who is delighted by the progress the promising player has made at Villa Park.

“Congratulations to Ajani on signing a new professional contract, having been very unfortunate over the last 18 months with injury,” Harrison commented on the club’s official website.

"We are really pleased to see him back and look forward to watching him play this season."

Burchall suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear and meniscus injury in training last August, which ruled him out of the rest of the season.

The 19-year-old underwent successful surgery at a London hospital and has now rejoined his team-mates for preseason training.

Burchall joined Villa from Bournemouth in July 2021 and signed his first professional contract five months later.

He opened his official scoring account at Villa in a big way after netting a hat-trick in his team’s ruthless 10-0 rout of Norwich City in the Under-18 Premier League.

The former North Village youth player joined Bournemouth in 2019 after being offered a pre-scholarship to join their academy.

He later made an historic debut for the club’s first team against compatriot Nahki Wells’s former club Huddersfield Town in the Sky Bet Championship.

Aged 16 years and 37 days, Burchall became the youngest Bermudian to appear in the English Football League and the third-youngest Bournemouth player behind Jimmy White and Jayden Stockley after coming on as a late substitute in a 5-0 win over visiting Huddersfield.

Before then Clyde Best was the youngest Bermudian player to appear on the big stage in England, aged 18 years and 182 days on August 25, 1969, when he made his debut for West Ham in a 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal.

The former Bermuda under-15 forward turned down a scholarship offer from Bournemouth to pave the way for a free transfer to Villa, who beat out the likes of Arsenal, Leeds United, West Ham and Crystal Palace in the race to secure the teenager’s signature.