Jaouen Hadjam to Brighton
Seagulls sign Young Boys left-back

1. 25 Aug
   Signing announced

   Brighton officially confirmed the signing of Jaouen Hadjam from Young Boys on a contract until June 2031.

Brighton have completed the signing of Algeria left-back Jaouen Hadjam from Swiss champions Young Boys on a contract until June 2031.

Brighton & Hove Albion have completed the signing of Jaouen Hadjam from Swiss Super League champions Young Boys. The club have not published the exact fee, but it has been widely reported in the region of £9.5m, or around €13m, with the 23-year-old left-back putting pen to paper on a deal running until June 2031.

The move gives Fabian Hürzeler another option at left-back, a position where Brighton like their full-backs to push forward and combine with midfield as part of their build-up play. Sporting director Mike Cave said the club see Hadjam as 'a great addition to the group, adding to our already strong options in defence', describing him as 'a modern left-back known for his pace, attacking output and technical abilities which fits our style of play well'.

For Young Boys, it is a significant departure. Hadjam had become a regular since joining from Nantes in 2024, making 98 appearances across the Swiss Super League and Europa League and helping the club win the domestic title that year. He was also part of the Young Boys side that retained the Swiss championship last season. Reports on the transfer noted Young Boys had signed him for around €1.3m in 2024, meaning his sale to Brighton represents a big profit, and that he is the first Young Boys player to move directly to a Premier League club in 14 years.

Hadjam's recent form has been built around a rise with the Algeria national team as much as with his club. Born and developed in France, he came through at Paris FC before a spell at Nantes, but he switched his international allegiance to Algeria, the country of his parents, in 2023. He has since won 21 caps and was part of Algeria's squad at the 2026 World Cup, playing in the group games against Jordan and Austria and the round-of-32 exit to Switzerland. In his final season at Young Boys, he contributed goals and assists from left-back as the club won the Swiss title again.

At Brighton, Hadjam joins a squad where Pervis Estupiñán has been the long-standing first-choice left-back but has had injury interruptions in recent seasons. Hadjam's pace and willingness to get forward make him a natural fit for Hürzeler's attacking full-back roles, and he arrives with Premier League experience of his own position already tested at World Cup level against strong opposition. He will need time to adapt to English football, but the profile — quick, technically comfortable, productive in an attacking sense — is exactly what Brighton have targeted in defence in recent transfer windows.

The switch also continues a pattern of Brighton recruiting promising players from clubs outside the traditional big five leagues, developing them, and selling for a profit further down the line — the model that shaped their recent recruitment strategy under sporting director Mike Cave's predecessors and one they appear to be sticking with.

• Announced by the clubs100

A sourcing score, not a chance of completion: it grades how solid the reporting behind the move is. The stage and the evidence come from the sources listed below; the arithmetic is fixed in code, the same for every deal.

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