Yankuba Minteh interview: ‘I have nothing against Newcastle, but I have fallen in love with Brighton’

A transfer driven by financial necessity has turned out well for Yankuba Minteh, Brighton & Hove Albion and Newcastle United.

Newcastle needed to sell Minteh last summer to ease their difficulties with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). The club had left themselves open to a possible points deduction if they failed to make sufficient sales before the June 30 reporting deadline. As it is, Eddie Howe’s side won the Carabao Cup last month, ending a wait of 70 years for a major trophy by beating Liverpool 2-1 in the final at Wembley.

Third in the Premier League, they are also on course to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Brighton, the buying club in a deal that cost in the region of £33million ($43.7m), are 10th but level on 48 points with Bournemouth in eighth. They are candidates to reach Europe for the second time in their history. So, everyone’s a winner.

Minteh, a raw talent on the right wing from The Gambia, is thriving in his first season in the Premier League and apparently blissfully unaware of the role played by PSR in driving his permanent switch. Having initially joined from the Danish club Odense Boldklub (OB) in 2023, he then spent a year on loan to Feyenoord but the forward never kicked a ball for Newcastle.

“I didn’t know anything about that because I’d never heard of it — that thing, ‘PFA’, or something like that…” Minteh tells The Athletic. “I just heard from my agent that they wanted to sell me. I said: ‘OK, if they want to sell me, then it’s fine. I can go to another club and try. I know other clubs are interested in me, so if I don’t play there, then it’s an opportunity to play for another team.’ I wasn’t sad or anything like that.

“All I was doing in the Netherlands (with Feyenoord) was trying to show I could play in the Premier League, because that is all I want. It doesn’t matter if it is Newcastle, Bournemouth or Brighton, but, after finding myself in Brighton, I have fallen in love with the club now. I am settled here and I am good here now.

“I don’t have anything against Newcastle. This is how football works. You go to this team, you think you are going to stay there for the rest of your life. Another team wants you, you move to another team.”

Confusing PSR with the players’ union, the Professional Footballers Association, is an understandable mistake.

Minteh is interested only in playing football and providing for his family. The 20-year-old enjoyed a recent visit from his father and some of his siblings — he is one of seven children. “I feel good every time after the game,” he says. “I see smiles on their faces, which shows they are really happy being here, watching me live in the stadium.”

He is normally in touch with his parents and other family members via WhatsApp video or audio calls before and sometimes immediately after matches. He had to compose himself away from the cameras during an emotional video package produced by the Premier League about his pathway from The Gambia, which included his mother speaking tearfully about her son.

Four years ago, Yankuba Minteh was playing in the top tier of Gambian football, living with his parents and sharing a room with his seven siblings

Fast-forward to today. He’s competing in the Premier League with @OfficialBHAFC

This is the story of Yankuba’s dream and the loved… pic.twitter.com/ehiQnCAAIE

— Premier League (@premierleague) April 14, 2025

Minteh grew up in humble surroundings in his homeland in west Africa, which has a population of less than three million. The family house in a compound in the village of Bakoteh, close to The Gambia’s biggest city, Serrekunda, had two bedrooms. His dad worked as a cook in hotels. His mum sold vegetables in the local market to help make ends meet.

“It’s a different life in Europe to Africa,” Minteh says. “It’s not only in Gambia, it’s every African country; you will find somebody like this if they make it. It’s not easy in Africa. You have to sacrifice a lot for your parents.

“If you want them to have a good life you have to sometimes sacrifice your school if you have the football talent to focus on, so that you can make it to Europe. And then you can change your life. So there is a lot of sacrifice. It’s kind of paying back, but you can never pay your mother back for the stuff she has to go through.

“She carries you in her stomach for nine months and that’s really hard for her. And my dad also; he has to provide food all the time. So, after making it this big, what I think about is changing their lives because they have been struggling a lot. Now I think about them living a better life.

“The house we lived in is small, but now they have a huge house. I bought it and I bought two cars — I gave one to my mum, one to my dad. And now I give the whole family an allowance every month. I send money back home and they split it — my siblings, my mum and dad — so they all have a better life now.”

Minteh (No 20) is consoled after The Gambia’s 2-3 loss to Cameroon at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP)

Minteh graduated in The Gambia from Bakoteh United’s academy to represent Steve Biko FC, a club named after the murdered South African civil rights activist. He came to the attention there of national age-group sides and was taken on by agent Bakary Bojang, a Gambian-born former player who had settled in Odense, Denmark, after retirement.

An initial foothold in Europe came with OB before Newcastle bought him in the summer of 2023 for a downpayment of £6.5m, fighting off interest from Brighton, RB Leipzig, Udinese and Club Brugge. “I watched Brighton since I was in Gambia because they are good at beating big teams,” Minteh says. “You saw how they play, they were incredible. They wanted to sign me since I was in Denmark, but they couldn’t agree with the club.

“Since that time, I had it in my head that Brighton might be a good club for young players. They showed they could improve players and then sell them to a big team, so I thought this may be good for me. So, just go there and try it.”

Minteh’s dad is a Bayern Munich fan. Fabian Hurzeler, Brighton’s 32-year-old head coach, played at Bayern in the junior and reserve teams from the age of 11 to 23 until quitting his boyhood club to concentrate on a coaching career. Hurzeler is also a Premier League debutant this season after guiding St Pauli to the Bundesliga 2 title in Germany last season. Their relationship is flourishing.

“He has helped me a lot,” says Minteh. “I have developed a lot. I like playing under him because the instructions he gives me… whenever I follow them, I see the improvement every time. How to position myself on the pitch and how to track back. I tracked back at Feyenoord, but not that much. He has put that mindset into my head that I have to track back every time, which my body is used to now. I can run the whole game.

“I think he saw the quality I have to do that and he has pushed me to improve, which is really helping me this season. He is always trying to motivate players. He is a good guy, a good manager.”

Minteh, Hurzeler and Georginio Rutter celebrate victory at Southampton in February (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Minteh has started all nine league games since Hurzeler demoted him to the bench for arriving late for a 1-0 home defeat by Everton in January. Quick and unpredictable, he has a goal involvement once every three games on average (five goals and four assists in 26 league appearances), but he is not satisfied with his contribution.

“I feel I can do more than that,” he says. “In some games, I’ve had a couple of chances to score, but I’ve missed. I need to work on how to finish correctly. I want to score more goals. Sometimes, instead of using the right foot, I use my left foot because I’m used to my left foot, so I need to work more on my right foot. Every time I make mistakes, I try to learn from it.

“I think of goals and assists, but I also think of working for the team. I need to be a team player, not an individual thinking I need to score. If you see an opportunity for others in a better position, pass the ball for them to shoot.”

Minteh played under Arne Slot, now Liverpool’s head coach, at Feyenoord last season. Brighton has been a step up — he had a greater impact in the Dutch Eredivisie, with 10 goals and six assists in 27 appearances.

Slot instructs Minteh while at Feyenoord (Matteo Ciambelli/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

“It’s totally different, because this is the Premier League, the best league in the world,” he says. “It’s really difficult. They do more running here. In the Netherlands I could run the whole (length of the pitch). I wouldn’t be tired because players don’t run much in the Netherlands. Here, every player is athletic.”

Minteh saw little of Newcastle during his year at the club, other than when receiving treatment for an injury. Now with Brighton, he is living by the sea at the opposite end of the country on the south coast, in neighbouring Hove. “Here, the life is good,” he says. “I love it here. I stay at home, don’t go out. If I go out, it’s maybe with the team, stuff like that. Sometimes with my friends if they come over, but I am not always out.

“I live with my wife now. She moved in last year. It makes me feel more settled, it makes me happy, it makes things easier for me. I can focus on football 100 per cent. I won’t be bored, playing PlayStation every day.”

Minteh’s wife, an American citizen with Gambian parents, sometimes cooks benachin — The Gambia’s national dish of rice, vegetables and meat cooked together in one pot. It is another reminder of home and how far he has come.

“I want to concentrate on Brighton, to work harder,” he adds. “I know there is more to improve. If I focus on what the coaches tell me and I believe in him (Hurzeler), he will improve me more. I can achieve a lot of stuff. I want to win trophies. That’s a motivation for me. I have a lot of potential, which I have to work hard on.

“Scoring goals, defending more, helping the team to achieve something — to show everybody I can do it.”

(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

This post was originally published on this site