Steve Alzate signs new four-year Brighton deal
Brighton midfielder Steve Alzate has been rewarded for his recent breakthrough from development squad to first team with a new four-year deal.
The 21-year-old has signed a contract keeping him at the Amex until the summer of 2023 after impressing Graham Potter over the first five months of the Albion boss’ reign.
Alzate came from nowhere to be promoted to the first team squad during pre-season. While all the talk of which young players might step up under Potter focused on the likes of Aaron Connolly, Viktor Gyokeres and Jayson Molumby, the former Leyton Orient midfielder was making a quite impression.
Alzate originally signed from the O’s in 2017. He spent the first half of last season on-loan at Swindon Town and didn’t pull up too many trees with the League Two Robins, scoring two goals in 22 appearances.
A stress fracture to his back curtailed his time at the County Ground and he ended the season back with the Albion’s Under 23s.
Nobody was tipping him to be involved in the first team picture this season, and yet he’s been involved since the first day that Potter took training.
He featured throughout pre-season for the first team, made his competitive debut in the 2-1 Carabao Cup win away at Bristol Rovers and then was handed his first Premier League appearance just over three weeks later in the 0-0 draw at Newcastle United.
That made Alzate the first development squad player to make a full league debut for the Albion since Christian Walton against Wigan Athletic nearly five years ago.
Alzate kept his place for last week’s defeat against Chelsea and his emergence hasn’t gone unnoticed on the international scene either. He’s already been called up to Colombia’s Under 23 squad for two friendlies against Peru later this month.
The only negative we can find surrounding Alzate is the fact that he goes down easier than Tom Daley and, whisper it quietly, Wilfried Zaha.
Alzare was quite rightly booked at Stamford Bridge for simulation and was lucky to escape the same fate for another blatant dive at Newcastle.
Cut that out of his game and the Albion have a real prospect on their hands – which is why the club have tied him down to a new deal just three games into his professional career at the Amex.
