How Brighton coach Fabian Hürzeler adds another American link to the Premier League

Only two Americans played on the opening day of the 2024/25 Premier League season, with Antonee Robinson starting for Fulham against Manchester United, and Chris Richards for Crystal Palace versus Brentford. Both USMNT defenders were on the losing side, but one man with strong American links did get off to a winning start: new Brighton head coach Fabian Hürzeler.

Who is Brighton coach Fabian Hürzeler?

A month after it was confirmed the highly-rated Roberto De Zerbi would be leaving the club, The Seagulls hit the headlines by appointing the youngest permanent head coach in Premier League history. And he hit the ground running with a 3-0 victory away to Everton last Saturday.

Hürzeler, who turned 31 in February, played in the lower leagues in Germany, including for Bayern Munich’s reserve team, has only ever held two managerial positions, the first of which was with FC Pipinsried, a fifth division club. But his work as an assistant with Bundesliga 2. side St Pauli eventually earned him the chance to become their head coach in December 2022, and he never looked back.

In his first season with the Hamburg-based club, Hürzeler took them out of a relegation battle and to within a few points of the promotion places, largely thanks to a run of 10 consecutive wins. In his first full campaign in charge in 2023/24, he led St Pauli to promotion to the Bundesliga as champions.

What is Hürzeler’s connection with the United States?

That caught the eye of the Premier League and Brighton, who decided to give the German his a chance. And although Hüzeler is German, by all accounts, with a German mother, having grown up in Munich and spent the entirety of his soccer career in Germany, he also holds both Swiss and American citizenship.

The new Brighton coach, whose father is from Switzerland, was born in Houston, Texas, where his parents were working for the first two years of his life. He has no recollection of his time living stateside, but revealed in an interview with former club TSG Hoffenheim in 2014 that his family frequently visited the land of his birth as a youngster.

“We used to go to the U.S. almost every year and took city tours. I can’t think of any major city I haven’t seen yet.” He’s not a massive fan of his birth city (“it’s very hot there and the crime rate is very high”), but does have a special fondness for Miami: “Beach, sun, friendly, open people – that’s Miami.”

Turner and Adams hoping to feature in 2024/25 Premier League

USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner will hope to win his place back in the Nottingham Forest team to become the third American player to feature in this season’s Premier League, while a fourth, Bournemouth’s Tyler Adams, is expected to be out for several months due to a back injury.