Deniz Undav (born 19 July 1996) is a German professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a forward for

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

of the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, on loan from

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Career

In April 2020, it was announced Undav would leave

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for th ...

club SV Meppen at the end of the 2019–20 season. With his Meppen contract running out, he would join Belgian First Division B side

Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise , abbreviated to Union SG or USG, unofficially simply called Union, is a Belgian football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels, although since the 1920s it has been based at the Jo ...

on a three-year deal. On 13 March 2021, Undav won the championship with

in the Belgian First Division B ending his season on 17 goals in 26 games. On the 15th matchday in the

2021–22 Belgian First Division A The 2021–22 Belgian First Division A (officially known as Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of top-tier football in Belgium. Team changes On the final matchday of the previous season, Royal Excel Mouscron wa ...

season Undav scored, for the first time in his career, a quadruple away at K.V. Oostende in the 7–1 victory.

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 31 January 2022, Undav joined

club

for €7 million, signing a four-and-a-half year deal. He immediately returned to Union Saint-Gilloise until the end of the 2021–22 season on loan. Undav made his ''Albion'' debut on the opening game of the 2022–23 season, coming on as a 90+5th minute substitute for

Danny Welbeck Daniel Nii Tackie Mensah Welbeck (born 26 November 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Brighton & Hove Albion. Welbeck made his way through the youth teams at Manchester United before making his senio ...

, helping Brighton seal their first ever victory at Old Trafford after beating Manchester United 2–1. He scored his first goal for the club in his second appearance, opening the scoreline in the 3–0 away victory over

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

in the second round of the EFL Cup on 24 August. He didn't score again until over four-and-a-half months later on 7 January 2023, scoring Brighton's last after coming on as a substitute, in the 5–1 away thrashing over

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

third round. Undav made his first Premier League start on 4 February, creating chances and making several attempts on goal without success before being substituted off in the eventual 1–0 home win over Bournemouth. He opened the scoreline on 19 March, scoring a rebound from a

Moisés Caicedo Moisés Isaac Caicedo Corozo (born 2 November 2001) is an Ecuadorian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion and the Ecuador national team. Professional career Independiente del Valle C ...

shot, later assisting a Evan Ferguson goal in the 5–0 FA Cup quarter-final win over

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

. Undav scored his first Premier League goal on 29 April, opening the scoreline and later adding a second in the 6–0 thrashing of

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

, their biggest Premier League victory. He added to his Premier League tally on 14 May, chipping in ''Albions second in the eventual 3–0 away win over Arsenal. Four days later, Undav scored at both ends in Brighton's 4–1 away defeat at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. He headed in an own goal from a corner to open the scoreline before hitting one back from two down, but Newcastle went on to finish the job.

VfB Stuttgart

On 2 August 2023, Undav returned to his native Germany, signing for

club

on a season-long loan for the 2023–24 season.

Personal life

Born in Germany, Undav is of

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

descent. His family is from the city of

Urfa Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ex ...

and the town

Viranşehir Viranşehir ( ku, Wêranşar) is a market town serving a cotton-growing area of Şanlıurfa Province, in southeastern Turkey, 93 km east of the city Şanlıurfa and 53 km north-west of Ceylanpınar at the Syrian border. In Late Antiquit ...

in Turkey.

Career statistics

Honours

Union SG * Belgian First Division B:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual * Belgian First Division A top scorer: 2021–22 * Belgian Professional Footballer of the Year: 2021–22

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Undav, Deniz 1996 births Living people People from Verden (district) Footballers from Lower Saxony German men's footballers Men's association football forwards TSV Havelse players Eintracht Braunschweig II players SV Meppen players Royale Union Saint-Gilloise players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players VfB Stuttgart players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Premier League players German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in England German expatriate sportspeople in Belgium German expatriate sportspeople in England German sportspeople of Turkish descent German people of Kurdish descent