Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has extended his contract until 2027, the club said Tuesday.
Emery has overseen an impressive turnaround at the Premier League club, which was in danger of being relegated when he took charge last season.
Under the Spanish coach, Villa is now fourth in England's top flight and in contention for Champions League qualification. Emery has also led his team into the semifinals of the Europa Conference League.
In a summer when Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are all looking to appoint a new coach, Emery has signed an extension to the deal he agreed in October 2022.
“We are enjoying our way together with Villa fans, the club owners, management and this great group of players that we are proud of," Emery said. “Me and the football management… we share the vision of the owners."
Emery took over from Steven Gerrard, who was fired after a run of just four wins in 22 league games spanning two seasons. He departed with Villa only above the relegation zone on goal difference.
Emery, who joined from Villarreal, led Villa to a seventh-place finish and qualified for Europe for the first time since 2010.
The 52-year-old Emery has won four Europa League trophies — three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal — and won the French league title with Paris Saint-Germain.
He previously coached in England with Arsenal from 2018-19.
Villa's rise under him had to led to speculation he could be targeted at the end of the season.
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Villa's manager Unai Emery attends a press conference in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Aston Villa will face OSC Lille for a Europa Conference League, quarter final first leg, soccer match on Thursday, April 11, 2024. (David Davies/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's manager Unai Emery attends a training session in, Birmingham, England, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Aston Villa will face OSC Lille for a Europa Conference League, quarter final second leg, soccer match on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (David Davies/PA via AP)
Aston Villa's head coach Unai Emery gestures during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Aston Villa at the Emirates stadium in London, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Aston Villa's head coach Unai Emery gestures during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Aston Villa at the Emirates stadium in London, Sunday, April 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
BERLIN (AP) — Berlin’s government is offering to give away a villa once owned by Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital.
“I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, told the state parliament on Thursday, dpa reported.
Berlin has repeatedly tried to hand off the site to federal authorities or the state of Brandenburg, where the villa lies, rather than continue to pay for maintenance and security at the complex, which has become overgrown and fallen into disrepair.
Evers renewed that offer on Thursday, calling for proposals that reflected the site’s history. He didn’t say if proposals from private individuals would also be considered.
“If we fail again, as in the past decades, then Berlin has no other option but to carry out the demolition that we have already prepared for,” Evers said.
Goebbels, one of Hitler’s closest allies, had the luxury villa built in 1939 on a wooded site overlooking the Bogensee lake near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin.
A retreat from Berlin, where he lived with his wife and six children, Goebbels used the villa and an earlier house on the site to entertain Nazi leaders, artists and actors — and reputedly as a love-nest for secret affairs.
After the war, the 17-hectare (42-acre) site was used briefly as a hospital, then taken over by the youth wing of the East German communist party, which constructed a training center, including several large accommodation blocks.
After German reunification in 1990, ownership of the site returned to the state of Berlin. However, the city found no use for it. The site has since become an attraction for day-trippers who can pick their way through the overgrown grounds and peer through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the villa.
Goebbels moved back to Berlin in the final phase of the Second World War. He and his wife killed themselves and their children with cyanide capsules in Hitler’s bunker as Soviet troops closed in.
The family’s opulent home on an island in Berlin was sold at auction in 2011.
The former villa of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels is seen on the Bogensee site, near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin, on March 22, 2024. Berlin’s government is offering to give away the villa, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital. “I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, told the state parliament on Thursday May 2, 2024, dpa reported. (Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)
The former villa of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels is seen on the Bogensee site, near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin, on March 22, 2024. Berlin’s government is offering to give away the villa, hoping to end a decades-long debate on whether to repurpose or bulldoze a sprawling disused site in the countryside north of the German capital. “I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, told the state parliament on Thursday May 2, 2024, dpa reported. (Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)
