Latest news with #Nurnberg
New York Times
20-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Why have Brighton signed two very similar Greek strikers?
Brighton & Hove Albion have spent upwards of £50million ($67m) this year on two Greek teenagers that play in the same position in the front line. So, can Charalampos Kostoulas (left in top image) and Stefanos Tzimas (right) feature together in the starting line-up, or will head coach Fabian Hurzeler be choosing between them next season? Advertisement There are parallels between the Greece Under-21 team-mates in terms of their rapid rises, value and goalscoring. Kostoulas, 18, joins Brighton from Olympiacos on July 1 for €35m (£29.6m; $40.2m) plus €2m in add-ons. That is more than the fee of £20m plus add-ons paid for 19-year-old Tzimas from German club Nurnberg at the end of the January transfer window. Kostoulas contributed seven goals and two assists in 30 appearances in the Greek Super League (which Olympiacos won) and the Europa League last season (Olympiacos lost 4-2 on aggregate to Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in the last 16 of the competition). Tzimas's output was higher in the 2024-25 campaign — 12 goals and three assists in 23 outings — albeit at a lower level in Germany's second tier. Nurnberg signed Tzimas initially on loan from PAOK in his homeland before exploiting a buy option in the deal and then selling to Brighton. Both players are predominantly right-footed finishers, around 6ft (183cm) tall and have agreed contracts with Brighton until 2030. But enough with the similarities, how are they different? 'We play the same position, but I think we have different characteristics,' said Kostoulas, speaking to the club website last week after his signing was announced. 'He (Tzimas) is fast, he is strong, he is very smart on the pitch and off it. He is hanging around the goal every time. He wants to finish the actions, he wants to score.' Tzimas showed his poaching instincts when he scored for Nurnberg against Hannover in March (see clips below). When a shot from Janis Antiste deflected off Hannover goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler onto the crossbar, Tzimas reacted fastest to head in the loose ball from close range. The next set of clips shows how Tzimas pounced in a similar fashion against Karlsruher in January. He was ready to pick up the pieces when Julian Justvan had a shot parried by the visitors' goalkeeper, Max Weiss. Tzimas controlled the ball with his knee and scored with a looping header. Tzimas also showed the attributes of a No 9 when he was on target in March against Greuther Furth. He makes a run infield in anticipation of a pass developing into an opportunity. The failure of a Greuther defender to cut out the pass left Tzimas running into space one-on-one with the goalkeeper. He opened up his body to slot the ball past the advancing Nahuel Noll with his trusty right foot. 'The biggest difference is that Tzimas is an out-and-out No 9,' Greek football writer and podcaster Stephen Kountourou tells The Athletic. 'Kostoulas, meanwhile, can play anywhere in the attacking line and definitely feels more like a spiritual successor to Joao Pedro, if the Brazilian forward does leave this summer.' Advertisement The versatility of Kostoulas is highlighted by the different types of goals he has scored for Olympiacos, operating in different areas of the pitch. In the clips below, he came off the bench against rivals Panathinaikos to make a darting run that caught the visiting defence flat-footed as he headed in a free kick from Brazilian Rodinei, sealing a 4-2 victory. Kostoulas did all the work himself in a home game against Aris Thessaloniki in November. He pressed voraciously as the visitors passed the ball in a triangle near the halfway line. Kostoulas wins the ball in a tackle and makes progress towards the penalty area, evading a challenge from an Aris defender. Once he is inside the penalty area, he shows composure to equalise with a right-footed shot into the far corner. Kostoulas went on to snatch the points in the same game with a 96th-minute header. 6ft In the final set of clips, against Volos in December, Kostoulas points to where he wants the pass as he makes a diagonal run across the central defender 30 yards from goal. He shifts the ball with his left foot back onto his favoured right foot to plant a low shot past Volos goalkeeper Daniel Kovacs, who is fooled into thinking he is aiming for the opposite side of the net. Kostoulas has scored five goals in 15 appearances representing Greece in age groups from under-16 to under-21. Tzimas has netted 16 times in 32 outings across the same range of age groups. They are tipped in their homeland to soon be making senior appearances at international level. 'Both are explosive players when it comes to running,' says Kountourou. 'Both are good physically and seem not to shy away from worrying about scoring when it comes to the big moments, because they know they are still young and they have the time to develop. In short, they aren't afraid to make those mistakes, because they will try and try again.' Advertisement The striker options are currently in a state of flux for Hurzeler next season, amid doubts over the futures of Joao Pedro, Julio Enciso and Evan Ferguson. Danny Welbeck and Georginio Rutter are respectively strong options for the No 9 and No 10 roles, while Brajan Gruda showed in the latter stages of last season as the injured Rutter's replacement that he can also be in the mix. The additions of Kostoulas and Tzimas bring an intriguing dimension to Brighton's forward options for the 2025-26 campaign. Kostoulas said during his signing announcement: 'Stefanos is my friend. He is a very good guy, a very good player. We had some discussion about here and I can't wait to play with him on the pitch.' (Top photos: Getty Images)
BBC News
18-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
World Football Union Berlin's rise to the Frauen Bundesliga
From the third tier of German women's football to the Frauen-Bundesliga in successive seasons, Union Berlin's women's team have been on a rapid rise. They won the Bundesliga 2 title on the final day of the regular season on goal difference from Nurnberg, and next term will line up against the biggest names in German women's football such as Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich. World Football's Delyth Lloyd has been speaking to Union Berlin forward Dina Orshmann about how it feels for the club to be in the top flight for the first time. PHOTO CREDIT: Dina Orshmann playing for Union Berlin (Credit: Union Berlin)
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How Stefanos Tzimas went from Greece, to Germany's second tier, to Brighton in six months
Stefanos Tzimas' transfer to Brighton & Hove Albion was not a standard January window move. 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. Advertisement 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 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. Advertisement '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. Advertisement '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. Advertisement '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 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.'
