West Brom sign Brighton starlet Jeremy Sarmiento | OneFootball

West Bromwich Albion have announced the signing of the highly rated Brighton & Hove Albion attacker Jeremy Sarmiento.

The 21-year-old forward joined Brighton as an exciting prospect from Portuguese giants Benfica in 2021.

However, first-team minutes have proven to be a collector’s item for the young winger, who has featured just 19 times for Brighton’s senior team over the last two years.

The Ecuador international winger represented his country at the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar, although they narrowly failed to progress from the group stages.

For most of the last campaign, Sarmiento was confined to the treatment room after suffering a fractured metatarsal.

The injury blow restricted the Madrid-born youngster to just 169 minutes of Premier League football and 12 appearances across all competitions last term.

Looking to recover his best form with an eye on securing a place in Roberto De Zerbi’s first-team squad, Sarmiento will spend next season on loan at West Brom.

Sarmiento is an exciting prospect who is versatile enough to feature in various positions behind a striker, which could be useful for the Baggies next season.

Carlos Corberan’s side finished the previous campaign just three points adrift of the Championship play-off places and will hope Sarmiento’s quality can spur them in their quest for Premier League promotion.

Corberan said: “I am very pleased to have signed a talented player from a Premier League club. He is an exciting player who has great maturity for someone so young.

“The fact he has already played in the Premier League and at a World Cup gives me the confidence that he has the personality and desire required to keep developing his skills.

“He is a versatile attacker who can play on either wing, as well as through the middle as a 10, and his flexibility to play to a high standard in three different positions will be important to us.”

Sarmiento is the latest Brighton youngster to leave the Amex Stadium in the summer transfer window in search of regular first-team football after James Beadle, Abdallah Sima and Kacper Kozlowski.