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Brighton: Fabian Hurzeler, 31, becomes youngest ever Premier League manager

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Brighton have appointed Fabian Hurzeler, 31, as their manager, making him the youngest ever full-time boss of a Premier League team.

Hurzeler, who guided St Pauli to the Bundesliga 2 title last season by winning 20 of their 34 matches, has signed a contract until 2027.

Brighton chairman Tony Bloom said his work with St Pauli made him a “standout candidate” to replace Roberto de Zerbi, who left at the end of the season.

Hurzeler will start with the side once he receives a work permit before Brighton’s squad embarks on pre-season preparations in July.

“He has a style of play that aligns with how we want a Brighton & Hove Albion team to play and I’m confident it is one our supporters will appreciate and enjoy,” said Bloom.

Ryan Mason, then 29, was briefly Tottenham’s interim boss in 2021 and is the youngest coach to ever lead a Premier League team, but Hurzeler is the youngest to do so on a full-time basis since the division’s creation in 1992.

Hurzeler is also younger than a number of Brighton’s senior players, including James Milner, 38, Danny Welbeck, 33, and Lewis Dunk, 32.

The new Seagulls manager said he was looking forward to working for a team who are “highly ambitious”.

“The club has a unique history and bold vision for the future so I am truly excited to be part of the project,” said Hurzeler.

First-team coach Andrew Crofts and goalkeeping coach Jack Stern will remain in their positions, and Brighton say the rest of Hurzeler’s backroom staff will be confirmed “in due course”.

Who are the Premier League’s other youngest managers?

Ryan Mason, Tottenham, 2021 – 29 years, 312 days (interim manager)
Attilio Lombardo, Crystal Palace, 1998 – 32 years, 67 days (interim manager)
Chris Coleman, Fulham, 2003 – 32 years, 313 days
Gianluca Vialli, Chelsea, 1998 – 33 years, 227 days (initially player-manager)
Andre Villas-Boas, Chelsea, 2011 – 33 years, 301 days

Hurzeler a ‘good fit’ for Brighton

Simon Stone, BBC Sport Chief football news reporter

If there was a club likely to appoint a 31-year-old manager, someone younger than their captain and a number of key players, it was Brighton.

It has been said many times in the past the club has no ceiling and is prepared to think outside the box to keep challenging bigger, richer and more established Premier League clubs.

Hurzeler’s CV is not extensive but it includes success and also a commitment to a similar style to De Zerbi and Graham Potter before him.

No managerial appointment comes without risk. If there has been caution expressed about the ‘Brighton model’, it has come from those who cite Southampton and Leicester as clubs who punched above their weight for an extended period and ended up in the Championship when it went wrong.

But Hurzeler seems to be a good fit.

On Tuesday, he will learn who his first opponents as a Premier League manager will be. He will be hoping to avoid a succession of games with English football’s heavyweights to give Brighton a chance of not finding themselves on the back foot.

If they can do that, Hurzeler may be another astute appointment for a club who have made it into an art form.

‘Exciting… Also a gamble’

German football journalist Raphael Honigstein believes Hurzeler is an inspiring appointment for Albion, albeit a “gamble” given his inexperience.

Hurzeler came through the youth ranks at Bayern Munich but cut short his playing career at 23 to go into coaching.

After spells in charge of Germany Under-20s and Under-18s, he became Timo Schultz’s assistant at St Pauli in 2020 and took charge of the team in December 2022.

“He’s a really exciting prospect,” Honigstein told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club.

“He stormed the Bundesliga 2 with St Pauli. He had huge offers, St Pauli renewed his contract in March but I guess Brighton have changed the equation.

“It’s also a gamble because he effectively only has one and a half years of coaching so far on his CV.”

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What is ‘passionate’ Hurzeler’s style of play?

Bundesliga 2 expert Matthew Karagich said Brighton fans can expect a similar style of play under Hurzeler to what they saw under De Zerbi.

“St Pauli are a very strong ball-playing team and that is one thing you will see from his teams – it is all about possessing the ball,” he told BBC Radio Sussex.

“You’re looking at a team that will try to use its pace to get behind defences and create opportunities. The one thing that you can also add is that he likes his teams to be quite flexible.

“Sometimes they can be reactive but very rarely is that the case. In most cases, they like to dominate the game, be in control and have the foot-on-the-throat mantra.

“We don’t want to just beat you, we want to destroy – that resembles the way he reacts on the touchline. He is very passionate.”