- Emi Buendia wowed on the European stage this week.
- It’s almost been five years since Norwich sold the Argentine forward.
- Why Norwich need to sign their next version of Buendia this summer.
Almost five years ago, Norwich City sold Emiliano Buendia to Aston Villa for a club-record fee of £33m after they won the 2020/21 Championship title.
On Thursday night, the Argentine wizard showed the world what he could do with an unbelievable assist and a goal from the penalty spot in Aston Villa’s Europa League semi-final win over Nottingham Forest.
Buendia is now up to ten goals and eight assists in all competitions for Villa this season, which is his best haul for the club since his move from Norwich.
Emi Buendia’s Norwich wizardry
The Argentina international was the main reason why Daniel Farke’s 2020/21 Norwich side won the Championship title, as he won the league’s Player of the Season award.
Buendia racked up a staggering 15 goals and 16 assists in the division that term, creating 18 ‘big chances’ and making 3.1 key passes per match.
The closest any Norwich player has come to matching Buendia’s output in a Norwich shirt was Gabriel Sara’s 13 goals and 12 assists as a central midfielder in David Wagner’s 2023/24 Canaries side.
Every promotion-winning team needs a player like that in their attacking arsenal. A player who can go and win a game on their own with a moment of individual quality, whether that is with a goal or an assist.
In the Farke era, Buendia consistently provided the team with those moments of magic, using his exceptional technical quality and creative mind to make things happen in the final third.
Norwich’s lack of attacking spark
Philippe Clement could only do so much with the tools he had available at Carrow Road in the 2025/26 campaign.
The Canaries fell short of the play-offs, in part, because they had a few too many games where they lacked a bit of attacking spark to go and win a tight game.
Norwich have a lot of attacking players who are decent or good, without being exceptional, which is reflected in the end of season statistics.
| 25/26 Championship | Player | Assists |
| 1 | Kenny McLean | 4 |
| 2 | Jacob Wright | 3 |
| 3 | Paris Maghoma | 3 |
| 4 | Mohamed Touré | 3 |
| 5 | Joshua Sargent | 3 |
| 6 | Ali Ahmed | 3 |
The fact that no individual player created more than four goals across a 46-game season illustrates how much the Canaries need a new Buendia-type creative talent.
Paris Maghoma has the potential to emerge as that sort of player for Norwich, but he needs to find more consistency in his play in the final third and has to play more minutes as a number ten, rather than being shoehorned out wide.
Norwich need to sign their next Emi Buendia
Now, with the summer transfer window set to officially open for business next month, Ben Knapper needs to find Clement the next version of Buendia.
Norwich are in the market to sign a new right winger and were linked with a move for Frosinone forward Farès Ghedjemis last month.
Knowing that the Canaries want to add another wide player to their ranks, Knapper has to recruit a forward who can offer consistent creativity for the strikers and midfield players to thrive off.
Buendia assisted 13 goals in LaLiga 2 on loan at Cultural Leonesa the season before Norwich signed him, so the club should be looking at players who assisted goals regularly in the 2025/26 season.
Barnsley winger Reyes Cleary, for example, provided 13 assists in League One this season and would be an interesting target for the club to look at, although he is predominantly a left-sided winger.
Irrespective of the position they play in, Norwich need to find their chief creator for the 2026/27 campaign when the summer window opens…
