How did Germany’s unlikely World Cup star Deniz Undav slip the net at Brighton?
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Deniz Undav celebrates scoring for Germany against Ivory Coast Jan Woitas/Getty Images
By Andy NaylorJune 25, 2026 12:13 am EDT UpdatedHow can it be that the unlikely challenger in the battle for the illustrious Golden Boot as top goalscorer at this World Cup did not cut it in the Premier League?
After two games each, only Lionel Messi (five goals), Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland (four each) have done better than Deniz Undav’s tally of three for Germany.
Even the star names above Undav — all without assists — cannot compete with his astonishing record of a goal involvement every 10 minutes or thereabouts (three goals and two assists during 56 minutes on the pitch).
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Undav’s contributions have all come as a substitute, with the 29-year-old coming off the bench in Germany’s first two group matches against Curacao and Ivory Coast, hence the massive disparity in playing minutes. Messi’s hat-trick against Algeria and double against Austria, for example, have been spread over 170 minutes of game time (meaning a goal contribution every 34 minutes).
Under the radar and underrated have been familiar themes on Undav’s football journey heading into Germany’s last group fixture against Ecuador on Thursday. With a place in the knockout stages already assured for coach Julian Nagelsmann’s side, there will be further opportunities for him to shine deeper into this tournament and to keep defying odds and expectations.
Substitute Undav equalises against Ivory Coast on June 20. Twenty minutes later, he got the winner too (Cole Burston/Getty Images)Undav was released at 14 years of age by top German club Werder Bremen, where he was regarded as being too small.
He spent hours watching videos of Thierry Henry and the Brazilian Ronaldo when he was growing up, pretending to be them in kickabouts with friends. Yet following in their footsteps by playing at the very highest level seemed destined to remain a mere fantasy when, at 17, Undav was working as a factory machine operator to supplement modest wages with TSV Havelse in Germany’s lower leagues.
Matthias Limbach, who discovered Undav when he was Havelse’s technical director, described him to The Athletic in 2022 as “a little, chubby player — a little lazy on the pitch”.
A chance for Undav to break into the big time arrived in 2020. Aged 23, he moved from SV Meppen and Germany’s third division to the second tier in Belgium with Union Saint-Gilloise. The Brussels-based club had been identified as a sleeping giant of Belgian football when, in 2018, Brighton & Hove Albion’s owner-chairman Tony Bloom became majority owner (he now has a minority stake there).
USG were on the up, and so was Undav. He spearheaded successive first-place finishes in the regular seasons of the second and top divisions and qualification for the Champions League (via second place in Belgium’s title play-offs in 2021-22), with 42 goals across 59 league appearances. In his final few months at USG, Undav was officially a Brighton player, signing in January 2022 for a fee of around £6million and returning immediately to Brussels on loan for the rest of that campaign.
Brighton’s sister club provided a well-trodden path to the Premier League — taken via loans to USG by South Africa international forward Percy Tau (2018-19), Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma (2021-22) and, after Undav, Ivory Coast winger Simon Adingra (2022-23). But while Mitoma has gone on to become a Premier League star with Brighton, things did not work out so well for the German.
The jump in level from Belgian football prodded at Undav’s self-belief. “I thought it would be hard, but it’s even harder than I thought… It’s not the farmers’ league, it’s the best league in the world,” he said of the Premier League during a November 2022 interview with The Athletic.
Undav’s bedding-in period also coincided with a change of head coach. He was signed during the reign of Graham Potter, who gave him his first four appearances, all as a substitute. Getting into the team was not straightforward, with Danny Welbeck, Leandro Trossard, Julio Enciso and Evan Ferguson among the attacking options at that time.
Then, in September 2022, Potter left to manage Chelsea. Although regarded in training as the club’s best finisher, Undav had to wait five months for his full league debut under his replacement Roberto De Zerbi.
That season ended in triumph for the team and with signs of a brighter future at the south-coast club for Undav. Five goals in the final eight games, including a deft finish off the bench in a 3-0 away win against Arsenal, helped De Zerbi’s side to sixth place, which meant Brighton qualified for European football for the first time.
Undav celebrates after scoring for Brighton against Wolves in April 2023 (Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)Undav finally appeared to be fully integrated, but that changed as Brighton assessed with De Zerbi what they needed to be competitive in both the Premier League and Europa League in 2023-24. Fellow forward Joao Pedro, now of Chelsea and Brazil’s national team, was bought that summer for a club record fee, at the time, of £30million.
Fearing he would be squeezed for game time again, Undav jumped at an opportunity to return to Germany on a season-long loan to Stuttgart. “It is with some regret we decided to let Deniz go and play,” De Zerbi said. “Last year he was crucial for us in achieving our goals, but he deserves that chance.”
Did Brighton and Undav give up on each other too soon? It is easy to reach that conclusion in hindsight.
Joao Pedro top-scored for the club with 20 in 40 games during that 2023-24 season, but goals from Brighton’s other forwards were in short supply. For example, Ansu Fati, signed on an expensive and largely disappointing season-long loan from Barcelona a month after Undav left, scored just twice in 19 Premier League appearances.
The timing of Undav’s first call-up to the Germany squad by Nagelsmann in March 2024 was ironic as the goals flowed freely again at Stuttgart. It came just hours before Brighton exited the Europa League with a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Roma at the last 16 stage.
Undav has thrived at Stuttgart, initially during that loan, and then ‘full time’ in the two seasons since they activated an option to seal a permanent deal. He has contributed an impressive 57 goals and 31 assists across 117 appearances in all competitions, helping them to qualify twice for the Champions League.
He would be a good alternative now to Welbeck, who turns 36 in November, for countryman Fabian Hurzeler, who replaced De Zerbi as head coach in June 2024, but Brighton will regard his sale as good business, in line with their model of improving signed players for their first team or so they can be moved on with high resale values. They forced the price up from Stuttgart’s first bid of £25.3million to £28m — a £21m profit in two and a half years.
Hurzeler wanted him to stay, but as Brighton’s then technical director David Weir said at the time of the deal: “Deniz wants to play Champions League football and continue his time with Stuttgart, and while we would have liked to have kept him as part of the squad, his preference was to make his move permanent. Once he’d made that clear, our priority was to ensure that Stuttgart met the valuation of the player.”
Even now at the World Cup, Nagelsmann has hinted that Undav may not be upgraded to Germany’s starting line-up, pointing out that “you could also argue that he should stay in this rhythm and continue helping us as an impact substitute” after two clinical second-half finishes secured a 2-1 comeback win against Ivory Coast on Saturday.
Regardless of how long he is on the pitch, Undav is showing on the biggest stage of all what he has demonstrated at different levels during his career — that he has the priceless knack of knowing how to score goals.
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Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
