Transfer market
Contract until 2027: St. Pauli’s Hürzeler moves to Brighton
Coach Fabian Hürzeler joins Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion. Photo
© Axel Heimken/dpa
FC St. Pauli’s promotion coach Fabian Hürzeler is leaving the Bundesliga club to become the successor to his role model Roberto De Zerbi in the English Premier League.
FC St. Pauli has to find a new coach after being promoted to the Bundesliga. Fabian Hürzeler is leaving the local club with immediate effect and will become the new head coach in the English Premier League at Brighton & Hove Albion at just 31 years of age. This was announced by the English Premier League club and the Hamburg club. Hürzeler signed a contract with the club of national player Pascal Groß until summer 2027. He is to be officially presented at a press conference on July 2nd.
“It was a pleasure for me to be able to accompany this special club on its journey. The move to the Premier League is a dream come true for me, but I will always carry St. Pauli and the unforgettable moments we shared, especially the promotion to the 1. Bundesliga, in my heart,” said Hürzeler in the FC St. Pauli statement. A decision on the successor has not yet been made.
Hürzeler is now the youngest head coach in Premier League history. Only Ryan Mason was younger in 2021 as interim coach at Tottenham Hotspur. Hürzeler will succeed the resigned Roberto De Zerbi, whom he once described as a role model. The then Pauli coach was in England in January and watched a Brighton game.
Brighton looks forward to coach Hürzeler
“Away from the pressures of the regular season, we have taken our time to get this appointment right and are delighted to have agreed terms with Fabian as our new head coach. He has already shown in a relatively short time as head coach that he is one of the most innovative coaches in football and we look forward to preparing for next season,” said Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber.
At FC St. Pauli, Hürzeler was promoted from assistant to head coach in December 2022, succeeding Timo Schultz. He led the club, which was then threatened with relegation, out of the danger zone with ten consecutive wins and finished the season in fifth place. In the past season, Hürzeler then pulled off the big coup and was promoted to the Bundesliga with the Hamburg team as second division champions.
In March, the 31-year-old also extended his contract, which was due to expire at the end of the season. The contract did not contain an exit clause. There was no official information about the term, but according to the “Hamburger Abendblatt” the contract was supposed to run until 2026. However, speculation about his future continued even after he signed the contract with the promoted team.