Brighton & Hove Albion have completed the signing of 21-year-old Paraguayan midfielder Diego Gomez from Inter Miami for a fee of £11million ($13.8m).
Our writers — experts in transfers, tactics, data and football finance — have come together to rate January’s senior Premier League transfers. This is a continuation of the project we launched last summer, but we have also made some significant tweaks to how we assess each deal.
Gone are the five scores out of 100, and in their place are 10 ratings of 50. This should allow for much more nuance to be reflected in the analysis and, importantly, much more variability in the overall figure each transfer ends up with. Follow the link below for more background on the changes.
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The Athletic 500: What we learned and why we’ve changed our transfer scoring system
Tactical fit — 38/50
Brighton’s evolving style this season under new head coach Fabian Hurzeler requires all-action midfielders capable of winning duels, skipping away from danger, and moving the team from back to front at pace. Gomez, a box-to-box midfielder capable of playing in a double pivot or as a No 8, satisfies most of these needs, combining these qualities with clever off-the-ball movement and a powerful shot.
With the departures of Alexis Mac Allister and Pascal Gross in recent transfer windows, Brighton have been getting less of a goalscoring contribution from midfield, so Gomez’s goalscoring punch in that aspect of the game could see him leapfrog some of the players already at the club. His 1.5 shots per 90 minutes put him in the top 21 per cent of midfielders in MLS during the 2024 season.
Gomez also averaged 3.2 tackles and 2.3 progressive carries per 90, ranking in the top five and 18 per cent respectively among his positional peers in MLS, which speaks to the all-around ability Brighton have invested in. His weaknesses have been in winning aerial duels and consistently picking the right pass, but these are coachable qualities, especially at his age.
Injury record — 20/50
Gomez’s fledgling senior career has seen him suffer two injuries so far, the worst of which was an ankle issue that kept him out for around three months last year. He returned from that in June to finish the season strongly for club and country.
The larger concern for Brighton will be the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury Gomez suffered when he was 16 and a youth player at Libertad in his homeland. There have not been any serious signs of a relapse, but that is still a very young age to suffer such a serious setback.
Market value — 21/50
Brighton have a knack for finding good deals in the South American market. An £11m fee may raise some eyebrows but if he settles at the club as well as the likes of his compatriot Julio Enciso has, it will look like another canny bit of business from them. How quickly Gomez adapts to life in the Premier League, which is significantly more physical than MLS, will be crucial.
Gomez celebrating Paraguay’s victory against Brazil last September (Christian Alvarenga/Getty Images)
Contract sensibility – 45/50
Brighton have handed Gomez a long-term contract. This should give the 21-year-old ample time to make an impression at the Amex Stadium, while also giving Brighton a relatively easy out if the move isn’t a success.
Recent form – 39/50
Gomez’s 2023-24 with Inter Miami and Paraguay was a successful one.
He recorded three goals and four assists despite playing just 1,362 minutes across 19 matches in MLS regular season, then added another assist during three play-off appearances, and also contributed three goals and two assists in six games across the CONCACAF Champions Cup and Leagues Cup.
At the Olympics in France last summer, Gomez captained the side as he assisted two goals in a 4-2 group win against Israel. He then scored the opener — a goal assisted by club-colleague-to-be Enciso — in the quarter-final against Egypt, a match Paraguay lost on penalties after it finished 1-1.
Gomez in action against Egypt at the 2024 Olympic Games (Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images)
Gap-filling – 20/50
Brighton are spoilt for choice in midfield with (when all are fit and available) Enciso, Carlos Baleba, Jack Hinshelwood, Yasin Ayari, Matt O’Riley, James Milner, Solly March and Mats Wieffer fighting for berths in Hurzeler’s line-up. That means Gomez could find minutes tough to come by initially but part of the Brighton blueprint is to buy young talents and sell them on when the time is right so opportunities will come, especially if the likes of Enciso and Baleba follow Mac Allister, Gross and Moises Caicedo in moving on.
Excitement factor – 19/50
Brighton’s success with South American players should be reason enough to get… reasonably excited. Mac Allister, Enciso and Caicedo were all young unknowns, in European terms, when they signed and each of them left lasting impressions among the Brighton faithful. Gomez may take a season or two to settle, but is likely to have the fans behind him from day one.
Gomez can soon add James Milner to the list of veteran stars he has played alongside – which includes Lionel Messi at Inter Miami (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
Future-proofing – 43/50
This deal carries limited risk for both player and club at the outset. Gomez’s profile appears a solid fit with Hurzeler’s style, while his age should help Brighton get a reasonable return on the fee they paid for him even if things go wrong.
Rival impact – 9/50
This is not a signing that is likely to cause much angst in other Premier League boardrooms. Not yet anyway. If Gomez does well at the Amex, there are sure to be a string of other European clubs looking to sign him — but that scenario is a few transfer windows down the line.
Marketability – 8/50
Gomez is not a player familiar to most European football fans and, as such, this move carries no real commercial draw outside his native Paraguay. There is scope for that to change in the long term, though, particularly if the youngster features at next year’s World Cup and establishes himself as a Premier League regular with Brighton.
