体坛英语新闻：The new owner of Villa: make Villa the top club in Europe

BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese businessman Xia Jiantong, the new owner of English football team Aston Villa, said his goal is to make Villa one of the top European clubs in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Xia is the Chairman/CEO and owner of Recon Group. He was amongst the initial 25 highly rated graduates out of 1,000 inviting back by Chinese government after spending six years at Harvard and MIT including five months exchange with Oxford University.

"Our initial payment is 75 million pounds, and the total payment could mount to more than 100 million pounds if the team can stay in the Premier League for 3 years." Xia said.

Talking about the new manager of the team, Xia said that they will decide among 6 candidates including former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson and former Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo.

Xia also expressed his ambition in the interview as he said he wanted Villa to be one of the top clubs in Europe in 10 years.

"Our immediate objective is to return to the Premier League", Xia said, "We will spend 20 to 50 million pounds this summer to achieve this goal."

"And then we want to have the club finish in the top six within 3 years, bringing European football back to Villa Park. Our long-term plan is to make Aston Villa one of the top clubs in Europe, it will take 8 to 10 years."