In the heart of Villa Park, where echoes of triumph and heartbreak reverberate through time, a new tale begins…
The Villan, a mysterious figure cloaked in secrecy and legend, has returned in the club’s 150th anniversary season.
Not as a conqueror nor as a destroyer, but as a tactician, a mastermind who sees the game of football as both art and science.
His presence is felt in every pass, every tactical switch and every moment of brilliance that turns the tide of a match.
Origins of the Villan
The Villan’s story begins not in the glare of stadium lights but in the dim corners of offices and training grounds.
The character in a long cloak, pointed hat and sporting a dashing moustache is the ‘Villa Villan’, with the term ‘Villan’ used to describe a claret and blue enthusiast since 1879.
The ‘Villa Villan’ appeared in the Sports Argus initially and you’ll have seen him on football cigarette cards and memorabilia throughout the 20th century and beyond.
There was also a 1968 fan publication featuring the ‘Villa Villan’ on the front called the Villazine.
Younger fans may recall the Villa Villan’s appearance in the 1986 Panini sticker album.
But who came up with the term ‘Villan’ and the character ‘Villa Villan’?
Pioneering programme editor Jack Urry is credited with having concocted the term, while it was cartoonist Tom Webster who animated the character of the same name around 1905.
Webster won a newspaper cartoon contest in 1904 and then joined the Evening Despatch and the Sports Argus, while Norman Edwards later became cartoonist for the publications in 1921 and reinvigorated the Villan cartoon.
Fast forward over 100 years and whispers say he is an intelligent scholar of the beautiful game, passionately pouring over strategies with the meticulousness of a chess grandmaster.
His methods are precise; his plans creative yet calculated.
Some call him a genius, a mastermind at work, others a maverick.
But those who know him best simply call him The Ultimate Villan.
Keep your eyes peeled…
