This season, Roberto de Zerbi’s Brighton are confirming that their good moment last season was no coincidence and that the Seagulls project is here to stay. After achieving a historic qualification to the Europa League, the English team was reinforced in the summer with several pearls and established footballers who could help continue developing the club’s projects.
However, surely few people could have imagined the great impact that João Pedro would have on the Italian coach’s scheme. João Pedro Junqueira de Jesus was trained in the Fluminense youth academy, a club for which he played until 2020, when he was signed by Watford for a figure close to 11.5 million euros. After three good years at the English club, Brighton noticed him in the summer of this year and signed him for almost 35 million euros.
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João Pedro has scored five goals in five UEL games
Although it was difficult for him to adapt right away, João Pedro has become a sure goal scorer for De Zerbi’s team. In 19 games played including all competitions, the Brazilian has already managed to score nine goals and has distributed one assist, generating 10 G/A in 1086 minutes played.
That is, João Pedro generates a goal or assist every 108′ minutes. These figures have allowed him to stand out in his club, since he is currently the player with the most goals scored for Brighton in the 2023/2024 season. His pursuer? Irish striker Evan Ferguson, who has six goals in 16 games played.
However, if there is a competition in which João Pedro has managed to stand out from the rest, it is the UEFA Europa League. The forward has already accumulated five goals in five games played in the continental competition, being the joint top scorer of the tournament, being tied on goals with the Gabonese striker of Olympique de Marseille, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Only in the continental competition, the 22-year-old striker averages a goal every 69.4 minutes, since despite being his team’s top scorer, he does not tend to be an undisputed starter and tends to be used as a catalyst or is changed when De Zerbi needs to put new pieces on his board.
