Aston Villa and Philippe Coutinho set to tear up lucrative contract TWO years early so he can join Brazilian side
Philippe Coutinho is in the final stages of negotiations with Aston Villa about tearing up the final two years of his contract.
Coutinho's career has nosedived since he left Liverpool in 2018 for Barcelona and then failing to settle at each subsequent club.
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A productive loan spell at Villa Park in 2022 led to him signing a four-year contract that summer and gave hope that the Brazilian could resurrect his career after a disastrous time at Barcelona.
However, he has scored just one Premier League goal since joining Villa permanently in the summer of 2022 and talkSPORT understands the midfielder wants to make himself a free agent and join Vasco de Gama in his native Brazil where he started his career.
The fifth-highest transfer of all time looked set to take his career to new heights when completing a £142million move to Barcelona from Liverpool.
But Coutinho's career has been nothing short of a nightmare in the six-and-a-half years since having failed to truly settle in at the Camp Nou.
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He was loaned out to Bayern Munich in the 2019/20 season, but the German giants opted to not take him on permanently.
He was then handed a lifeline by former Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard, who became Villa manager and signed Coutinho on loan in the second half of the 2021/22 season.
Coutinho, who has 68 caps for Brazil, did enough to impress Gerrard as Villa forked out £17m for his services in the summer of 2022.
But Coutinho's career soon slipped back into the downward spiral with the 32-year-old just managing six goals and three assists in 43 appearances for the club.
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He was sent to Qatari club Al Duhail on loan last season but now looks set to be without a club for the foreseeable.
Now, though, it is set to be an emotional homecoming of sorts if he joins Vasco de Gama, the Rio-based side where he started as a youth player before headed to Europe in 2010 to join Inter permanently.
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A brief spell on loan at Espanyol in 2012 preceded his £8.5m move to Anfield a year later where he made a name for himself.
During the 2013/14 season he was part of the Liverpool side that came closest to winning a first Premier League title where his midfield magic helped Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge score.
Manager Jurgen Klopp had hoped to keep him at the club, but Barcelona proved to be too hard to resist and he left.
Liverpool, meanwhile flourished as Coutinho moved around Europe.