Yankuba Minteh
Right Winger · Brighton & Hove Albion · Gambia
About Yankuba Minteh
Yankuba Minteh is a Gambian winger who went from playing barefoot on a sand pitch in Serekunda to a £30m Brighton career via loan spells in Denmark and the Netherlands. An explosive one-on-one dribbler, he became one of the summer of 2026's most talked-about names when Liverpool pursued him for weeks while he was sidelined by injury, only for Brighton to see off every bid.
Yankuba Minteh's story
From Bakoteh's Sand Pitches
Born in Bakoteh, near Serekunda, the Gambia's largest city, Minteh grew up sharing a two-room home with his parents and seven siblings. A boyhood Barcelona fan with no academy background, he was spotted playing barefoot on a local sand pitch by Bakary Bojang, a former Gambian footballer settled in Denmark, who arranged a trial at Odense Boldklub in 2021.
A Winning Debut, Then Newcastle
Minteh scored the winner three minutes into his Danish Superliga debut for Odense in September 2022. Newcastle United paid around €7m for him in June 2023 and immediately loaned him to Feyenoord, where he scored ten goals in 27 Eredivisie appearances and became only the second Gambian to score in the Champions League.
£30m to Brighton, Never Having Played for Newcastle
Newcastle sold him to Brighton for £30m in July 2024 without him making a single first-team appearance for them. "If they want to sell me, then it's fine," he told The Athletic a year later. "I don't have anything against Newcastle, this is how football works." He set up a goal on his Premier League debut against Everton that same August.
A Summer Under Siege
Liverpool's interest in Minteh played out publicly for weeks over the summer of 2026, with manager Fabian Hürzeler personally urging him to stay before Brighton's valuation of him proved too rich for their suitors. The saga finally ended on transfer deadline day, 1 September, with Minteh unable to kick a ball throughout it.
Did you know?
- ⚽ Minteh scored twice in a 3-0 win over Chelsea during the 2025-26 season and picked up two separate Premier League Player of the Month nominations, in September 2025 and February 2025, in his first two full campaigns at Brighton.
- 📋 Newcastle's decision to sell Minteh for £30m in 2024, without him playing a single match for the club, was driven largely by Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules constraints rather than a football judgement on his ability.
- 👨👩👧👦 One of eight children, Minteh grew up in a rented two-room house in Serekunda; he later used his first big transfer fee to move his family into a better home, fulfilling a promise he'd made as a boy to his mother, Mam Jassey, once a market trader.
- 💰 Brighton's reported £80m valuation of Minteh in 2026 was more than double the £30m, release-clause-free fee they paid Newcastle for him just two years earlier.
- 🩹 The injury that has kept him out since before the 2026-27 season began happened in Brighton's pre-season, ahead of a friendly against Bologna on 15 August 2026; manager Fabian Hurzeler called it "definitely a blow for us because he is a key player."
- 🌍 In September 2025, Minteh scored once and set up two more in a 3-1 win away to Kenya that eliminated the Harambee Stars from World Cup qualifying, a performance Gambian media credited as decisive.
- 🎤 As an unproven trialist at Odense, Minteh reportedly told his academy director, "I will be here for just a little while, then I will go to the big leagues" — a bold claim after an unconvincing first attempt at a trial.
- 🔵🔴 Long before pulling on Brighton or Newcastle colours, Minteh was a boyhood Barcelona supporter, the club he has credited with first drawing him into football.
- 🇬🇲 He is a certified national hero in the Gambia, where children now wear replica Brighton shirts with his name and number on the back.
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