The Brighton & Hove Albion Puberty Challenge: Part Two

The ‘puberty challenge’ has become the latest social media trend to go viral as millions of people rush to upload photos of themselves both before and after making the leap to adulthood.

Inspired by the trend, we’ve gone through every player in Brighton and Hove Albion’s 2018-19 Premier League squad and found a photo of them at their first club along with one of them playing for the Albion this season.

David Button with a full head of hair is barely recognisable, Jose Izquierdo somehow once looked every younger than he does now and we’ve even included a bonus Chris Hughton right at the end for good measure.

So, following on from part one of the Brighton and Hove Albion Puberty Challenge – here’s part two.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Brighton’s record signing played for two clubs in his native Iran before moving to Europe. Unfortunately, no photos seem to exist from the first of those, Damash Tehran, who he enjoyed 12 brief games with. Instead, we’ve had to settle for him playing for Damash Gilan and short of his ability to grow a beard, nothing seems to have changed in the intervening seven years.
 

Glenn Murray

Glenn Murray’s rise through the divisions is a familiar story now as his goal scoring exploits in the Premier League with the Albion have made him a household name. His big break in professional football came with Carlisle United, a period in his life when he had a lot more hair.
 

Jose Izquierdo

Despite being 26 years of age, Jose Izquierdo is one of the youngest looking members of the Albion squad. Appearing about five years younger than he actually is is clearly a theme that has run through the Colombian’s life as he looked about 12 when making his professional bow with first club Deportivo Pereira.
 

Solly March

Plenty of people believe that Solly March is a product of our academy, but the Albion actually picked him up as a 17-year-old who was playing for Ryman League Premier Division side Lewes. He completed his footballing education in Brighton’s Under 18s and Under 21s squads where he must have also received some sound advice on haircuts given the monstrosity he used to sport when turning out for the Rooks.
 

Ezequiel Schelotto

The Greyhound began his career at Italian third tier side Cesena a decade ago and even as a 19-year-old he was pulling off that whole Jesus of Nazareth vibe pretty well. It’s a shame really that we’ve probably seen his flowing locks hopelessly out of position somewhere down the right side of the pitch for the last time in Brighton colours.
 

Martin Montoya

Martin Montoya arrived for around £6m from Valencia on deadline day in the summer, but he begun his career at Barcelona as a product of their fabled La Masia academy. Back then he had less styled hair and no beard. His face also appears to be a lot thinner these days, perhaps a sign that he is missing the Spanish way of life which seems to involve eating tapas at least seven times a day.
 

Jason Steele

When Jason Steele first burst onto the scene at Middlesbrough as a baby faced 20-year-old, he was hailed as the next big thing in English goalkeeper. It hasn’t quite worked out like that and consecutive relegations from the Championship with Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland have clearly taken their toll as he seems to have aged an incredible amount in the past eight years. Hopefully, a run of confidence-boosting performances such as on his Albion debut in the 3-1 win away at Bournemouth can inject some youthfulness back into him.
 

Davy Propper

It’s hard to imagine the Albion’s classy Dutch midfielder Davy Propper without a beard but that is how he looked when making his debut as an 18-year-old at home town club Vitesse Arnhem. His hair also looks much better kept in those days, suggesting he let his appearance become more ragged as he moved away from home, first with PSV Eindhoven and then with Brighton.
 

David Button

There isn’t a player in the Albion squad who has changed as much as David Button. The goalkeeper is genuinely unrecognisable since his recent decision to try and look like Tyson Fury from the young Tottenham Hotspur prospect who went on 13 loan spells across the lower leagues during his time at White Hart Lane. This photo comes from the seventh of those at Shrewsbury Town in the 2009-10 season, since when he appears to have turned his head upside down.
 

Markus Suttner

Markus Suttner played over 250 times for his first club, Austria Wien. By the looks of things, he may well have single handedly kept shops which sold hair gel in the Austrian capital in business. Suttner has since grown out of that phase and looks much the better for it.
 

Bernardo

Left back Bernardo has been on an odyssey to play for every team owned by Red Bull. It’s been a real success as he has so far got Red Bull Brasil, Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull Leipzig on his CV, requiring only New York Red Bulls to complete the set. It was with RB Brasil that he began his career, sporting lovely fuzzy hair which he now styles, most recently into dreadlocks.
 

Chris Hughton

We couldn’t complete the Brighton and Hove Albion Puberty Challenge without including Chris Hughton. The Albion boss spent the majority of his playing career at Spurs, enjoying 13 years at White Hart Lane and making nearly 300 appearances along the way. In the first few seasons with the club, he sported what can only be described as a bloody amazing afro. Sadly, the stress of nearly a decade as a manager probably means that those days will never return but if there is a God out there wanting to produce a miracle to prove his existence, then reversing the passage of time and giving Hughton his afro back would be a very good way to go about it.