Premier League supporters have a new £16 million face to get used to next season. And if the winger can emulate the impact his former team-mate made north of the border at Rangers, then any concerns over that sizeable price-tag will quickly be put to bed.
Brighton and Hove Albion have quite the track record when it comes to unearthing diamonds in the rough, and turning them into polished gems.
Alexis Mac Allister, Julio Enciso, Moises Caicedo, Evan Ferguson and more have all become household names on the back of their time on the South Coast and it’s testament to Brighton’s renowned recruitment department that it would come as a major surpriseif Ibrahim Osman was not also a roaring success.
Brighton have agreed a deal with Danish outfit Nordsjaelland which will see the teenage winger – who came close to joining West Ham United in January – join Roberto de Zerbi’s side in a £16 million deal at the end of the current campaign.
Rangers ace inspiring £16m Brighton newbie
“I prophesied that he would make it,” Didi Dramani, who coached Osman at the famed Right to Dream academy, tells The Athletic. “He was hard-working, with a high level of resilience. He blossomed. I knew he was the next in line.
“His potential is based on his personality, his work attitude. When players work so well in training, the coach will use them.”
Interestingly enough, Rangers boss Philippe Clement highlighted the very same attributes – the work-rate, the tenacity, the talent and the drive to succeed – while explaining why Osman’s fellow Right to Dream graduate has the potential to reach the highest summits of European football.
The impact Mohamed Diomande has made at Ibrox will have done little to dull Clement’s confidence in the 22-year-old either. Diomande arrived with a reputation for being a teak-tough ball-winning midfielder but immediately set about showing that there is more to his game than that. He’s already scored two fine long-range goals for the Scottish Premiership challengers and also set up Tom Lawrence’s opener during the 2-2 draw at Benfica.
£4 million-plus very well spent at Ibrox
Diomande will set Rangers backaround £4.3 million when the Glasgow giants trigger the obligation-to-buy clause in his contract this summer. A fee which already looks like a bargain, not only because of how he has performed in that blue shirt, but because of how much some of the other Right to Dream graduates have changed hands for.
Osman will cost Brighton £16 million. Southampton paid £22 million for Kamaldeen Sulemana, and Mohamed Kudus left Ajax for West Ham for £38 million.
Who’s to say that, if Diomande cannot develop like Kudus did in Amsterdam, he too will not be commanding a similiarly eye-watering fee in the coming year.s
“I’ve seen what the other Right To Dream players have achieved and these were big shoes that needed to be filled,” Osman adds, via The Athletic. “Kamaldeen, Kudus, (Brighton’s Simon) Adingra, (Ernest) Nuamah, Diomande, to name a few…
“They have all helped motivate me to go the extra mile to prove how good I am.”
