Brighton on verge of making Fabian Hürzeler, 31, the Premier League’s youngest manager after securing work permit

Last week, it was revealed that Hürzeler was the shock leading candidate for Brighton, who are now in advanced talks with German side St Pauli.

Under Hürzeler’s management, St Pauli won promotion to the Bundesliga as champions of the German second tier in the 2023-24 campaign.

If an agreement can be reached with St Pauli, Hürzeler will become the youngest manager in the history of the Premier League. The US-born coach turned 31 in February.

Hürzeler is younger than many of Brighton’s most important players, including goalkeeper Jason Steele (33), captain Lewis Dunk (32), defender Joel Veltman (32), midfielders Pascal Gross (32) and James Milner (38) and striker Danny Welbeck (33).

Born in Texas to a Swiss father and German mother, Hürzeler moved to Germany when he was two years old. As a player he represented the reserve teams of Bayern Munich, Hoffenheim and 1860 Munich before moving into coaching.

He worked as a player-coach at Pipinsried and also served as an assistant coach of the Germany under-20 and under-18 teams.

He was an assistant coach at St Pauli under Timo Schultz and then took over the top job following Schultz’s sacking in December 2022.

Brighton had also shown interest in Malmo head coach Henrik Rydstrom after Kieran McKenna, their preferred target following Roberto De Zerbi’s departure, decided to sign a new four-year deal at Ipswich Town.

Brighton also considered returning to Graham Potter, their former head coach who left to join Chelsea in 2022 and remains out of work.

Leicester City are targeting Potter and have made contact with him as they step up their search for a successor to Enzo Maresca following his departure to Chelsea.