Villa sign goalkeeper Suzuki and left-back Ruggeri

Suzuki's former coach at Sint-Truiden in Belgium, Dennis Rudel, conjures up an intriguing image of Villa's new goalkeeper.

"We played in Anderlecht and after the game we went out to the bus and there was a fight with hooligans," he tells BBC Sport.

"The head coach called for Zion: 'Come here, get out of the bus and clear the situation.'

"It was a joke but you have a picture of Asterix and Obelix and everything is flying away. You have never seen a goalkeeper or a player like that."

The comparison with Asterix, the cartoon character who gains immense strength after taking a magic potion, is telling, and Rudel believes Villa have signed a unique player.

"I saw his power immediately. To show your strength in the game you have to let the tiger out on the pitch, let the beast out. He is so powerful, I have never seen a goalkeeper like it," said Rudel, who worked with Suzuki when he was on loan at Sint-Truiden in 2023-24.

"He has such big hands and is powerful - when he can reach the ball it will be 90-95% a save, maybe other keepers touch the ball but it goes in. With him it is something really special.

"After the first two weeks of working with him I said to him you don't need your apartment, you live in the gym."

Rudel also praised Suzuki's distribution, with both his arms and feet, and believes his former player can become one of the world's best.

"It's possible because if he stays healthy and with his physical strength there is no one better in the world, in terms of dynamic, jumping power, throws, kicking the ball," said the former Union Berlin coach.

"When I watched him at the World Cup, his biggest strength is he is mentally clear - the focus on the game or the training sessions is so good. He is always prepared, really disciplined.

"When I see how he always adapts so quickly over the last four years, I'm convinced he can play at that [Premier League] level.

"There are big footsteps from Martinez [to follow], you get measured and compared to Martinez. It would be the same at Bayern Munich with the new Manuel Neuer - Jonas Urbig who is starting to replace him - you get compared to the former player.

"He's aiming to show he can be one of the best. He was immediately one of the top four or five goalkeepers in Serie A.

"As a person and a player, he is a role model and how you should behave. I don't see any weakness in him."

Rudel was key in bringing Suzuki to Europe having travelled to Japan in 2020 for coaching clinics and met Suzuki's coach at Urawa Red Diamonds, with the goalkeeper being flagged to him.

Sint-Truiden, who have also had Liverpool's Wataru Endo and Crystal Palace duo Takehiro Tomiyasu and Daichi Kamada on their books, are owned by Japanese electronics and internet company DMM.com.

That helped pave Suzuki's route to Belgium, and a year later he joined Parma for £8m.

"[In 2023] we were looking for a new goalkeeper and had a couple of on the list but all of a sudden the club said we had an option to get Zion. I said to the sporting director 'forget the list - if we can get him, get him'," added Rudel.

"His level went up really quickly, he is very ambitious, he wanted to learn a lot, he asked a lot. We did a lot of video analysis and I can remember how nice it was to work with him. It was a shame it was only one season."