Yankuba Minteh and the strange goal that sums up his season

Stadium of Light, Sunderland – The only goal of Saturday’s Premier League meeting between Sunderland and Brighton & Hove Albion arrived in the 64th minute via a ricochet so bizarre that even the scorer seemed unsure whether to celebrate or apologise. Yankuba Minteh, racing in from the right, miscued a cross, saw the ball squirm under goalkeeper Melker Ellborg, and jogged away wearing the sheepish grin of a man who had just won the lottery with a torn ticket.

Team-mate Mats Wieffer, now operating as an emergency right-back, called it “one of the craziest goals of the season” and, in truth, it was a moment that encapsulated Minteh’s entire campaign: chaotic, unpredictable, occasionally maddening, yet ultimately decisive.

The build-up was typical Minteh. With Habib Diarra prone inside the Sunderland box, the home defence hesitated. Minteh ignored the distraction, darted at Granit Xhaka, felt a tug on his arm, stumbled, and somehow shovelled the ball goal-wards. Jan Paul van Hecke’s smart dodge allowed it to roll untouched inside the near post. Brighton had their lead, their third win in four matches, and a jump above Sunderland on goal difference in the congested mid-table.

Statistically, the strike ended a 20-game league drought stretching back to September’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham. It was only his second goal of 2025-26, yet the 21-year-old still leads all under-21 players for total goal involvements since joining Brighton for £30 million from Newcastle in August 2024 – eight goals and eight assists in all competitions.

The raw numbers hint at untapped potential. Before kick-off at the Stadium of Light, Minteh had amassed 124 touches inside the opposition box, the most of any Premier League player in the first half of the season, one more than Erling Haaland. He had carried the ball into the area 61 times, second only to Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku among wide men. Yet the end product has lagged behind: Doku, playing four additional matches, owns one goal and six assists, compared with Minteh’s one goal and four assists.

Brighton’s coaching staff remain encouraged. “People forget he is still only 21,” Wieffer reminded reporters. The pair previously overlapped at Feyenoord, where Arne Slot – now Liverpool boss – oversaw Minteh’s first half-season of European football. “The first months were up and down; the second half he was really good,” Wieffer recalled. “His decision-making is better, but when you have that much pace you sometimes miss the free player. He’s improved it a lot.”

Improvement is visible, yet so are the flaws. Minteh’s defensive concentration wavered late on Saturday: a skied clearance almost gifted Omar Alderete an equaliser, a petulant shove on Luke O’Nien earned a yellow, and a clumsy foul on Chris Rigg prompted Fabian Hurzeler to withdraw him after 76 minutes. “We needed to protect him,” the Brighton head coach admitted. “We want unpredictable things offensively, but defensively he must be reliable.”

Hurzeler, who has used Minteh sparingly since a thigh injury in late December, insists the forward is responding. “He understands more and more what is needed – not only to be creative but to be there for the team. This goal should give him another boost.”

Next up is Liverpool at the Amex, where Minteh’s old mentor Slot will visit knowing full well that the winger can drift through 89 minutes of mis-control before producing one decisive, bizarre moment. Expect the unexpected: it has become both Brighton’s headache and their greatest hope.