Brighton & Hove Albion CEO Paul Barber has acknowledged that star winger Kaoru Mitoma “will be in the spotlight” in the summer transfer window, amid interest from a host of top European clubs.
The 25-year-old has contributed with nine goals and six assists in 27 appearances during a stellar debut season with the Seagulls, with his form helping Roberto De Zerbi’s side challenge for a top-six finish in the Premier League.
Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich are all said to be keeping tabs on Mitoma’s progress ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.
Manchester United, meanwhile, is the latest club to have been credited with an interest in the Japan international, who is under contract at the Amex Stadium until June 2025.
Brighton is believed to be keen to keep hold of Mitoma and is allegedly preparing to offer the winger a bumper new contract which would make him the highest-paid player at the club.
In response to recent speculation regarding Mitoma’s long-term future at Brighton, CEO Barber has admitted that the winger will attract interest this summer, but has insisted that they are under no financial pressure to cash in on their No.22 or any other first-team players.
Speaking to The Beautiful Game Podcast, Barber said: “Obviously [Mitoma is] another player that will be in the spotlight in the next transfer window. We’re ready for that and we understand that. We just hope he can have a great second half of the season.
“I think we are realistic about what can happen (in the transfer window), but we are also quite prepared to stand our ground when we need to. If we’ve got a player on a good contract or someone who we think is not right for them to leave at this moment, we can say no.
“We’re very fortunate from a financial point of view that we’re not a club that has to sell players to survive, and I think that puts us in a really good position when it comes to negotiations.”
After writing a thesis on the art of dribbling at the University of Tsukuba in his late teens, Mitoma represented Kawasaki Frontale before joining Brighton for just under £2m in the summer of 2021.
Mitoma spent a successful 2021-22 campaign on loan at Belgian club Union SG, scoring eight goals and registering four assists in 29 games, and has since developed into a star player with the Seagulls this term.
Barber has heaped praise on the winger as both a player and a person, adding: “He’s so exciting to watch. When I was growing up, wingers used to be my favorite player. They were quick, skillful, tricky, score goals, assist goals, and for me [Mitoma] is a little bit of a throwback to those times when there were top wingers at the top level of English football because he’s go all of those attributes.
“He’s great on the ball, he’s a great dribbler, he’s got this incredible speed, and we always marvel the way he can get to the goal line and somehow cut across the face of the goal where there’s no space. It’s hard to understand how he does that. Maybe his education and the thesis that he studied have helped.
“He was a university player, we identified him quite early. He played a little bit in Japan, we moved him across to Belgium where he climatized to the European way of life. He’s a quiet guy, very modest, very humble.
“If you see him around the training ground or in the team hotel before matches he’s just a very, very normal, down-to-earth guy, but when he gets onto the football pitch, he comes alive. I don’t think there’s a right back in the country that wants to play against him.”
As a result of Brighton’s rapid rise in the Premier League, Mitoma is one of a number of first-team players who have been linked with a move away from the Amex along with the likes of Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, and Evan Ferguson.
Both Ferguson (2) and Mitoma were on the scoresheet as Brighton beat Grimsby Town 5-0 last weekend to progress to the FA Cup semi-finals, while the Seagulls currently sit seventh in the Premier League table, seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur who have played three games more.
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