Stefanos Tzimas: How Miroslav Klose turned Greece's great hope into £20m Brighton starlet and Europe's next top striker

Tzimas was born in the Greek city of Thessaloniki on January 6, 2006, and was snapped up by local side PAOK at the tender age of seven. It was difficult for the club to keep his talent under wraps as he swiftly soared through the youth ranks - he made his Under-19 league debut at only 15 - and into the B team.

That stint in the reserve side proved a quick detour on his way to the seniors, as Tzimas earned himself a promotion to the first-team having only played 10 games, scoring seven times. He soon became the youngest scorer in PAOK history when he netted in a 6-0 win against Ionikos, making history with, at that point, an uncharacteristic header shortly after his 17th birthday in March 2023.

"I thought I was going to score, but not with a header, it didn't even occur to me that I would score with a header, I rarely do," he said post-match, demonstrating his confident but humble nature.

Tzimas is said to have gone home that evening and stayed up until the early hours watching his goal on repeat, before dragging himself out of bed and taking himself to school the next morning, where he humbly accepted a warm ovation from his teachers and classmates.

The potential of Tzimas was evidently enormous, yet PAOK opted to blood him into the fold slowly and steadily - he made only two more appearances that season after his record-breaking goal, coming off the bench for run outs in their final games of the campaign. That summer, he became a full-time member of the first team.

PAOK would go on to win the 2023-24 Greek title from under the noses of usual suspects Olympiacos, and Tzimas made an early impression on that run with a goal on his first start two weeks into the season. Across the entire campaign, he would play 24 times and conjure up four goals plus one assist, averaging a direct involvement every 88 minutes.

Though his boyhood club were still playing it safe with his development, Tzimas was attracting suitors from all over Europe. A wise head on young shoulders studied his options carefully, and opted to join 2. Bundesliga outfit Nurnberg on loan with an option to buy, largely thanks to the influence of their famous head coach.

"For me, this will be my first experience abroad and I have consciously decided to move to Nurnberg. I am ready and looking forward to learning a lot from Miroslav Klose and playing a successful season together with the team," Tzimas revealed upon arriving in Germany.

Perhaps surprisingly, Tzimas didn't enjoy the best of starts to life with Nurnberg, despite his eagerness to impress new boss Klose. He played just over 80 minutes across their first four league games of the season, making unspectacular cameos from the bench. But then everything changed in a trip to SSV Ulm.

Tzimas, again, started the game on the bench, but when Nurnberg went behind shortly after the restart, Klose called for the Greek to lead the line and inspire a comeback. He did just that. Within minutes of coming on, Tzimas tormented the Ulm defence and came up with an equaliser. Deep into stoppage time, he won the deciding penalty, which was converted by Taylan Duman. Nurnberg had done it, and Klose's masterstroke paid off.

That's not where the story of the day ended, however. In the 100th minute, Tzimas lost his cool and was shown a red card for a cynical foul with the ball way out of his reach. Klose was furious in his post-match assessment of the teenager, and the local press weren't too kind either.

But one way or another, that day was the turning point in Tzimas' career so far. After serving a two-match suspension, he was thrown into the starting line up by Klose to great reward, bagging the opener in a 3-2 triumph at home to Preussen Munster, with three further goals arriving over the next two games.

Tzimas had arrived. A forward famed for his technique and hustle was now turning chances into goals, a sixth sense for scoring developing week on week. By the time the January transfer window opened, he was tipped to join the leaders of either the Bundesliga - Bayern - or the Premier League - Liverpool.

Where there's a wonderkid, though, there's a scout or data analyst from Brighton keeping tabs on them. The Seagulls, managed by Fabian Hurzeler, who shares a personal bond with Klose, agreed a deal with Nurnberg at the eleventh hour. The German side would trigger their own purchase option from PAOK, then sell Tzimas on immediately to Brighton for £20m on the condition he spent the rest of the season back on loan at the Max-Morlock-Stadion.

Make no mistake, Tzimas is showtime. The power and poise in his running style - hunched but nimble - combined with his newfound nose for goals makes him a super fun forward to watch in full flight.

Under the wing of Klose, he's managed to add several new weapons to his arsenal. Tzimas has all sorts of finishes in his locker, be they first time, top corner or even the renaissance of the outside-of-the-boot trivela. Arriving at in the right place at the right time is becoming the norm for him, to boot. Right now, Tzimas has confidence oozing through his veins. The audacious is the ordinary, best demonstrated by the couple of dinks he's already scored with this term.

There's something to be said of his robust mental strength, too, particularly after being torn to shreds for his dismissal. It would have been easy to simply stay at PAOK and fight for his spot there, but he instead wanted to learn from Klose and opted to move to the second division in a foreign country to make that happy. With Liverpool and Bayern both taking a look at him, he could have spurned the advances of Brighton to hold out for a bigger move, only again to choose a sensible step. In a sport increasingly driven by money, Tzimas wouldn't have been blamed for donning some novelty dollar-sign contact lenses and simply letting the highest bidder win the race for his services, yet that's not what's happened.

Unsurprisingly, Tzimas is not the finished product yet, far from it. That's fine, he's still only 19 after all, but there are some notable areas he can focus on.

Standing at just over six-feet tall, there are questions over whether he should be more of an aerial threat, especially as he's shown to be capable of finding the net with headers having peeled away from his marker. That will come in time and under more supervision from Klose, one would presume.

Similarly, Tzimas' hold-up play needs brushing up, with much of his focus and attention being on how quickly he can turn towards goal and make things happen moving in that direction. He still has to learn the other side of being a striker, helping the team progress up the pitch with more care and control.

For someone so technically gifted and great to watch on the ball, Tzimas should also perhaps be a better passer than he currently is, though this is perhaps a nitpick too far. There have been flashes of this skill shining through this season, at least, picking the lock with improvised lobs and half-volleys.

There's a certain gait with which Tzimas runs with the ball which is reminiscent of a younger Luis Suarez. His fists seems clenched, his arms swing back and forth with the maniacal endeavour of someone shopping through Black Friday mega-sales. The ball is not glued to his feet, rather he knocks and chases it over several feet at a time, seemingly wobbling but seldom knocked out of that mesmeric stride. The ingenuity in his vision is a bonus.

Suarez was also widely overlooked for his intense pressing and dogged defensive work ethic, both attributes of which Tzimas already has in abundance and has made him one of Europe's top forward prospects.

Over in Germany, he has been likened to RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko, another freakish striker off the Red Bull production line who himself has drawn comparisons to Erling Haaland, once of Salzburg. Tzimas isn't afraid of throwing his body around to get his own way, but it's his progress as an out-and-out scorer which will determine which of these comparisons he will live up to.

An added pressure on Tzimas' shoulders could be the long line of Greek wonderkids who have been hyped to the heavens before him, only to fail to live up to expectation. It's rather fitting that similarities to Sesko of Slovenia and Haaland of Norway have emerged given those two European nations aren't renowned for producing top young talent. Maybe there's hope for Greece that this gem won't slip through their fingers.

At the time of writing, Tzimas is one of only eight players to have broken the double-figure mark for goals in the 2. Bundesliga this season, with 10 plus two assists in 19 games to this point. Brighton's plan for Tzimas is to squeeze every last bit of information out of mentor Klose before heading to England's south coast in the summer, and Seagulls head coach Hurzeler is confident he is in the right place to learn.

"We will follow him now even more than we did before. We will help him. I know Miroslav Klose quite well so I will be in touch with him," Hurzeler said. "It is also about giving Stefanos the preparation for the Premier League so he doesn’t need that much time to adapt when he comes here. That is a thing of togetherness.

"It [2. Bundesliga] is very intense, there are a lot of personal duels. I think it is very equal so a little bit similar to the Premier League but, of course, not on that level... It is a very good league to develop for young players."

Tzimas is also yet to be capped by the Greece senior team, but that will come in time, perhaps beginning with their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign which gets underway in March. Should qualification be secured, there's no doubt he'll be on the plane if he continues progressing at his current rate.