Brighton’s World Cup footprint reflects a decade of smart evolution | OneFootball

Brighton’s imprint on the 2026 World Cup is striking, with a record nine involved when England training goalkeeper Jason Steele is counted. According to NY Times, 23 Brighton players past and present are competing in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Netherlands squad has Bart Verbruggen, Jan Paul van Hecke and Mats Wieffer. Elsewhere, Ferdi Kadioglu features for Türkiye, Pascal Gross for Germany and Diego Gomez for Paraguay.

Kaoru Mitoma’s hamstring injury against Wolverhampton Wanderers in May required surgery, ruling him out for Japan. In Qatar four years ago Brighton had eight involved, including Alexis Mac Allister, who went on to win the trophy with Argentina.

Ecuador supplied three in 2022, Moises Caicedo, Pervis Estupinan and Jeremy Sarmiento, with Tariq Lamptey, Robert Sanchez and Leandro Trossard completing the group. This time Mac Allister, Caicedo, Estupinan and Trossard have been selected, while Sarmiento, Sanchez and Lamptey have not.

Russia 2018 brought just three Brighton representatives, Maty Ryan, Leon Balogun and Jose Izquierdo. Fees for that trio were just over £20m, compared with £104m for the 2026 group, reflecting the club’s rise to two top-eight finishes and European qualification twice.

The 2023 exits of Caicedo to Chelsea for £115m and Mac Allister to Liverpool for £45m epitomised Tony Bloom’s data-led model after recruiting them for £4m and £8m. Not every signing hits, as shown by Jurgen Locadia’s £14m move yielding three league goals and Alireza Jahanbakhsh’s £17m transfer ending with a £5m sale to Feyenoord.

With competition intensifying, Brighton have broadened their markets, signing Stefanos Tzimas, Charalampos Kostoulas and Yoon Do-young in 2025. Off-field changes also came in 2024, with Sam Jewell’s exit and Fabian Hurzeler replacing Roberto De Zerbi, and the 2026 contingent skewing European apart from Paraguayan Gomez.

Source: NY Times