How Stefanos Tzimas went from Greece, to Germany's second tier, to Brighton in six months
The 19-year-old Greek forward's rise has been particularly rapid. After five months scoring goals in the German second tier for Nurnberg, where he was on loan from Greek side PAOK, the combination of a fee in excess of £20million ($24.8m) and the way the deal was executed makes it one of the more intriguing transfers of the recent winter window.
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This was a deal that could only be done thanks to a combination of Nurnberg expediting a buy option in the terms of the loan, and Brighton moving decisively amid competition from clubs across Europe.
'It's crazy — six months, 17 games, and now he is a Premier League player,' says Olaf Rebbe, who oversaw the move as Nurnberg's sporting director, a role he subsequently left this week.
Brighton's data-led recruitment model identified Tzimas as one to watch when he was making waves at PAOK, progressing through their youth ranks from the age of seven until he made the first team at 17. Rebbe knew of his potential too, having spent a year as PAOK's sporting director before joining Nurnberg in 2021.
'I met Stefanos a few times at youth games, playing for the under-17s,' says Rebbe, speaking exclusively to The Athletic before his departure from the 2.Bundesliga club. 'He was an outstanding boy in that age group. He wasn't training with the first team at that time but, after I moved from PAOK to Nurnberg, we were looking for a striker (last summer).'
Twelve goals in 21 appearances across PAOK's under-19 and B teams, with the latter playing in the Greek second tier, led to Tzimas making his first-team debut in a domestic cup match four days after his 17th birthday in January 2023 — followed quickly by an initial league appearance the following month and opening his senior goals account in the March as he played his first home game in the Greek Super League.
Although he contributed to PAOK's title success the following season with three goals and an assist in 15 league appearances, 12 of those games were as a substitute. They then bought two international strikers last summer for a total of £4.3m to prepare for Champions League football: 26-year-old Russian Fedor Chalov of CSKA Moscow and Morocco's Tarik Tissoudali, 31, from Belgian side Gent.
That put a question mark over the minutes Tzimas would get at PAOK this season. Nurnberg were convinced that, with regular game time and working under the expert guidance of their head coach Miroslav Klose — who just happens to be the record goalscorer for both Germany's national team (71) and in World Cup finals history (16) — the youngster would grow as a player.
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'I presented Stefanos to Miroslav with videos and he had a chat with him,' Rebbe says. 'We gave him the No 9. We made him a big player for us straight away. Miroslav told him he would like to develop him. There were a lot of clubs interested in him, in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy — bigger clubs than us.'
Tzimas's season-long loan to Nurnberg, who play in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, incorporated a hefty buy option that could be activated in summer 2025 for £15m, plus add-ons.
Nurnberg's belief in Tzimas was rapidly vindicated. Eight goals and two assists in 14 league matches before the winter break began in late December aroused increasing interest. It mounted with two more goals in as many games on Nurnberg's return to action last month.
'We were happy to have this high option, because we felt once we played him consistently he would adapt to senior football,' Rebbe says. 'A lot of clubs in Europe, from Serie A, the Premier League, showed up.' That was all the incentive Rebbe needed to reach an agreement with PAOK to trigger that buy option early, then immediately sell Tzimas on in a move that would boost Nurnberg's reputation as a good proving ground for young players.
'At the end of the year, I had concrete talks with some Premier League clubs, some Serie A clubs,' says Rebbe. 'I felt the deal could happen in the range of €25m (£20.8m/$25.8m). For us, it was important to make the deal and not raise the price to an unrealistic level. It was a really good deal for us as a development club.
'We make big revenues. In this window, we sold an 18-year-old centre-back for €10m (Finn Jeltsch to Stuttgart), last summer, we sold a No 10 for over €10m (Can Uzun, also 18 at the time, to Eintracht Frankfurt). For me, it was important to follow up this image and also to realise it's crazy and very unusual for a striker to go from a second division with an option for €18m and to sell him straight to the Premier League.
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'It's a huge deal and it shows the footprint for young players that they can come to Nurnberg, play, and get the next step.'
Brighton grabbed their chance to see off the opposition for Tzimas' signature. Identifying talent early is a well-established aspect of their global recruitment policy. This is amplified by acting quickly and decisively, a method regarded internally as 'first-mover advantage'. Owner-chairman Tony Bloom sanctioned the spend, while head of recruitment David Weir and his assistant Mike Cave were heavily involved in making sure Tzimas saw Brighton as his No 1 choice.
A deal was secured with Nurnberg for just under £21m, plus add-ons. Tzimas has been awarded a contract until 2030 and will stay with the German club for the rest of this season.
Rebbe says: 'If we had left it open until the summer, maybe we could have earned a few more euros somewhere, somehow, but it would have turned crazy. There was so much pressure from clubs. Serie A clubs wanted to take him directly in the winter, with serious interest from the Premier League. Stefanos had his heart set on Brighton.
'It was a very good and honest negotiation. We had many offers on the table for the player, but he flew over, saw everything and was convinced by the football project, where he can develop. When he came back, he showed me the pictures: the training ground, the people. He was very proud. He is really peaceful now, not jumping around with offers and possibilities.'
PAOK fans are, contrastingly, discontented by this turn of events involving a player who in a parallel universe is scoring consistently for them. Tissoudali (six goals in 28 appearances, 11 of them starts) and Chalov (four in 30, 14 starts) have struggled to make an impact. The reigning champions are fourth in the Super League table, eight points behind leaders Olympiacos.
'Both of them have really underperformed,' says Stephen Kountourou, a writer and podcaster for Hellas Football. 'Chalov is not even in the first team. Tissoudali has been sent out on loan (last week to United Arab Emirates club Khor Fakkan). A lot of PAOK supporters are questioning why they let Tzimas go on loan and why they did not bring him back in January.
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'Instead, they have now let him leave for Brighton in the summer. I think that is a massive loss for PAOK. Strikers scoring goals has been a big issue. They are not performing at the level they were last season. Tzimas is cited as a player who could have elevated them to around the level they were previously.'
Tzimas has resumed the season with Nurnberg since agreeing his move to Brighton. He played the full game without scoring or assisting in a 4-3 away win against Magdeburg on Saturday.
Once his time in Germany is over, Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler will assess him during pre-season before a decision is made on whether to integrate Tzimas straight into the first-team squad or send him out on another loan for more first-team football in a less demanding league. It will be clearer by that stage what the future is for 20-year-old Republic of Ireland international No 9 Evan Ferguson, who has himself been loaned to West Ham United for the rest of this season in a deal that doesn't include a buy option.
Hurzeler knows the 2.Bundesliga well, having steered St Pauli to the German second tier's title last season. Speaking about that level of football in his home country during his pre-match press conference last week before the 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round win against Chelsea, Hurzeler said: 'It's very intense, a lot of personal duels. I think it's very equal, a little bit similar to the Premier League, but of course not at that level.
'Everyone can beat everyone. It's a very good league to develop in for young players. We will follow him (Tzimas) now even more. We will help him. I know Miroslav Klose quite well. I will be in touch with him. Then it is also about giving Stefanos the preparation for the Premier League, so that he doesn't need much time to adapt when he comes here.'
Rebbe, having helped broker the deals which will end up with Tzimas going in the space of a year from Greece to Germany and on to England, is confident about the young man's direction of travel.
He says: 'In this case, everyone wins. PAOK wins, Nurnberg wins, Stefanos wins of course, and Brighton win as well, because they get a prospect who could become worth three or four times the money. If we have brought him to this level in six months, I don't want to say if it will be one year, two years or three years, but he will be worth more.
'With his mentality and his style, Brighton have a diamond.'
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