Brighton sign £7m striker Deniz Undav from Union SG
Brighton & Hove Albion have SIGNED A STRIKER, paying a fee believed to be around £7 million to Tony Bloom’s other club Royale Union Saint-Gilloise for the services of Deniz Undav.
The German centre forward has signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the Seagulls, but will be loaned straight back to Union until the summer as they chase the Jupiler League title in their first season in back in Belgium’s top flight for 48 years.
Undav first came to prominence in the 2015-16 campaign with TSV Havelse in Regionalliga Nord, part of Germany’s fourth tier.
In two seasons with the wonderfully nicknamed Pelikans, he scored 37 goals and registered 15 assists from 72 appearances before moving onto SV Meppen in the summer of 2017.
Undav became an instant hit, helping Meppen to promotion to Bundesliga 3 at the end of his first season with the club.
He scored nine goals in 18 games as Meppen won the Regionalliga Nord title, following that up with six from 35 matches in the third tier in 2018-19.
Better was to come in 2019-20. 17 goals and 14 assists from 34 matches piqued Union’s interest and they took him to Belgium on a free transfer following the expiration of his Meppen contract in the summer of 2020.
Undav has thrived in the land of mind-bending 16 percent beers, nice chocolate and famous fries. His 17 goals and six assists helped Union to win promotion to Belgium’s top flight and there has been no stopping them this season either.
They currently top the Jupiler League, nine points clear of Club Brugge in second. Union’s unlikely championship challenge is arguably the biggest fairy tale taking place in European top flight football right now and Undav is the man who has fired it, scoring 18 times and assisting another 13 goals from only 25 league appearances.
His overall record with Union is 37 goals and 15 assists from 56 games in all competitions. That feeds into a career record of 181 matches, 100 goals and 47 assists.
The lovely Rachel Riley would be able to tell you very quickly that Undav averages better than a goal every two games.
Unusually for a Graham Potter signing, there does not seem to be a great deal of versatility in where he has played. Undav has spent his entire career operating as an out-and-out centre forward, similar in that respect to Neal Maupay.
At 26, Deniz Undav does not fit the recent profile of Brighton signings either. Rather than being one for the future like striking additions such as Andi Zeqiri and Abdallah Sima, he is about to hit the prime of his career.
Once he arrives from Union in the summer – hopefully as a Belgian champion – then he will be expected to challenge for a first team spot. Bloom would not have sanctioned one of his clubs raiding another otherwise.
The challenge for Undav will be making the step up from Belgium football to the Premier League. Brighton fans may be excited about his arrival, but the difference in standards is huge.
Just ask Percy Tau. He was voted as Player of the Season in Belgian’s second tier whilst at Union. He then followed that up by winning the Jupiler League with Club Brugge.
After a two-and-a-half season odyssey around Belgium whilst awaiting a British Work Permit, the Lion of Judah finally made it to Brighton in January last year.
Eight months and less than 180 minutes of Premier League football later and he was sold to Egyptian outfit Al Ahly.
The lack of opportunities afforded to Tau – even though he looked decent enough on the rare occasions he stepped onto the pitch – suggested that Potter did not believe him cut out for the English top flight.
Brighton will be hoping that Deniz Undav can bridge the gap that Tau was unable to. His record points to him being a clinical finisher, something Brighton are obviously crying out for.
Put somebody with natural finishing ability into this Albion side who create so many chances and they should get a hatful of goals.
That is the theory that Seagulls supporters will be clinging to anyway. We will find out next August whether it is true or not.
