Who is Charalampos Kostoulas and why do Brighton want him?

Brighton are closing in on the signing of Charalampos Kostoulas in a record-breaking deal for the Greek teenager.

The Athletic reported that Brighton have submitted a bid of £34m for the 18-year-old with negotiations ongoing.

Kostoulas joined the Olympiacos academy in 2019 from Agia Anna Volos.

From there, he quickly progressed, signing his first professional contract in 2022 and making his debut for the B team in January 2023, making him the youngest player in the history of the club to make their professional debut.

Olympiacos’ B team plays in the Greek second tier – a fairly common occurrence throughout the ‘smaller’ European countries.

In 2024, he won the UEFA Youth League with his teammates, scoring 5 goals in the process.

So… why isn’t Kostoulas necessarily a striker?

Well, it should come as no surprise to those who closely follow the players Brighton have signed recently, but there is a notable trend of them being able to play in numerous positions and roles into transferable skill sets.

Kostoulas follows the trend as he has operated on either flank as well as in the middle of the pitch. Below is his season heatmap from SofaScore based on the 1200 minutes he played domestically last season:

For the Europa League, it looks similar:

Like I said, based on that, he is not particularly an ‘out-and-out striker’.

Finding full games of the Greek Super League is very difficult, and I don’t intend to spend my summer watching the Greek league. Maxi, a football tactician profile, is here if you want to check them out.

What does Kostoulas’ profile bring to the South Coast?

The good news is that the main weaknesses I saw in those clips, and others, are all fixable with natural age and physical development. He will only get stronger in duels, and holding the ball up as he gets older and naturally builds more muscle. Kostoulas turned just 18-years-old on 30th May.

The same applies, but to a lesser extent, with his agility, acceleration, and speed. However, I cannot stress enough that this is based purely on YouTube comps and roughly 20 minutes of clips, so nothing here is conclusive, as the full 90s I don’t have access to could paint a different picture in reality.

Furthermore, his dribbling needs improvement. In small spaces, he can improvise well, however, he will take erratic touches, which cause him to lose control of the ball and it gives the defender a chance to dispossess him – something which would happen against Premier League defenders, whereas, respectfully Greek Super League defenders generally won’t be at that level.

Despite his price tag, don’t necessarily expect him to be starting or playing right away if this is the case. Patience will be key.

Some of the positives (again, from the clips) are that he heads the ball well both in an attacking sense and when he wins aerial duels. He scored a headed goal against Aris to demonstrate this, a 96th-minute winner!

Despite some erratic touches while dribbling, he does carry the ball well in different sizes of space, and he does a good job of knowing when to release the ball and making the correct decisions.

His passing range is good for a forward. He has a tendency to switch the ball to the other side of the pitch in the highlight reels, and the weight of the pass as well as the execution looks good on them. A useful tool to have to combat opposing overloads on one side of the pitch. The last point here is that his hold-up play is good and will continue to improve as he physically grows stronger.

Can Kostoulas justify the ‘Kost’?

In conclusion, hopefully, this piece gives you a small insight into who Charalampos Kostoulas is and what sort of player he is.

Assuming the move happens and an agreement with Olympiacos is found, then he will become one of our most expensive incoming transfers in the club’s history.

That being said, I wouldn’t expect him to come in and hit the ground running right away, but rather be behind the current players in those areas until deemed ready to play/start games.

The club have a great record with buying young players over the last few years, so let’s “trust the process” and see where it gets us.