From Brighton struggles to World Cup Golden Boot contender: How Deniz Undav became Germany's most lethal goal-scorer

After being let go by Bremen for being too small, Undav even spent some time as a teenager working in a factory as he bounced around clubs in the third and fourth tiers of German football, before belatedly starting to find his feet in the professional game in Belgium.

Perhaps inevitably, a 2022 move to Brighton initially looked like a case of too much, too soon for a player coming off the back of one prolific season in the Jupiler Pro League with Union Saint-Gilloise (26 goals in 39 games).

The talent was obvious. Around the Amex, there was talk of Undav being the best natural finisher at a club that also had Danny Welbeck, Leandro Trossard and Evan Ferguson on their books. The problem was, though, that Undav, who was an immensely popular character in the dressing room, seemed incapable of replicating his train-ground performances in the Premier League.

He did find the back of the net in the FA Cup quarter-final win over Grimsby Town on March 19, 2023, but it was just his third goal for the club - and, for many, it was no coincidence that all three had come against lower-league opposition. Undav looked like a player playing one or two rungs above his true level.

For example, on his first start against Bournemouth, on February 4, 2023, he missed three very presentable opportunities in the space of 15 minutes. However, Roberto De Zerbi was in no doubt that Undav had the talent to thrive at the highest level.

"I have a lot of confidence in him," the then-Brighton boss said after the 5-0 rout of Grimsby. "I believe in Deniz. He has big qualities and I want more from him."

De Zerbi's faith in Undav eventually paid off, with the striker scoring five times in Brighton's final eight games of the season - including once in a 3-0 win over Arsenal at the Emirates. From the outside looking in, it looked as if a corner had turned - and that's how Undav felt too.

"I realised what matters in football," he later said of his final few weeks at Brighton under De Zerbi. "You have to work for the team, even making runs that might seem unnecessary at times. It took me three or four months to understand that. I suddenly became much more effective and valuable to the team."

It, thus, came as surprise when Undav was allowed to join Stuttgart on loan for the following season. However, Joao Pedro's arrival was clearly going to impact the German's game time, so it was with "some regret, as De Zerbi put it, that Undav was allowed to leave.

"Last year Deniz was crucial for us in achieving our goals," the Italian admitted, "but he deserves that chance to play." And Undav made the most of it.

At the end of the 2023-24 season, Stuttgart had a club-record five players included in Germany's European Championship squad. Unsurprisingly, Undav was one of them.

He had formed a fantastic partnership up front with Serhou Guirassy, scoring 18 goals and providing nine assists, as Stuttgart sensationally qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 14 years by finishing as runners-up to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga - their highest finish since winning the title in 2007.

Consequently, while De Zerbi's successor, Fabian Hurzeler, tried to convince Undav to return to Brighton, he had no intention of doing so and completed a permanent move to the MHPArena in August 2024.

The €32.6 million (£28m/$37m) fee was a club record for Stuttgart, but sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth was in no doubt that it would prove money well spent - and he was right.

Despite being hampered by minor injury issues during his first season as a permanent member of the Stuttgart squad, as well as the start of last season, Undav forced his way back into the Germany squad in March of this year, after sitting out their entire World Cup qualification campaign, thanks to his fantastic form at club level.

Undav scored 25 goals and provided 14 assists in all competitions for Sebastian Hoeness' side in 2025-26, with only Bayern Munich's front three of Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz able to directly contribute to more goals than the Stuttgart striker as he helped them return to the Champions League via a fourth-placed finish and reach a second-straight DFB-Pokal final.

When he did get his opportunity to impress at international level again, he didn't require much time to make an impact, with Undav coming off the bench to net an 88th-minute winner in a friendly win over Ghana. Two more goals followed in the World Cup warm-up win over Finland, prompting calls for Undav to start Germany's first game at the finals, against Curacao.

Nagelsmann resisted that urge, as he still believed the striker was best suited to coming off the bench when opponents are tiring and, thus, leaving space for him to exploit.

It was an argument he made before and after the Ghana game, albeit with clumsy, slightly disrespectful language, for which he apologised to Undav, but it's now become almost impossible to leave Germany's most in-form forward out of the starting line-up.

After all, Undav doesn't just have three goals to his name at the World Cup (as well as nine in 11 international appearances in total), he already has a couple of assists too - despite seeing just 56 minutes of game time - and that's inevitably prompted claims that he's not just the most instinctive finisher in the Germany squad, but the focal point a forward line full of creative talents is crying out for.

Nagelsmann, thus, has a big call to make ahead of Thursday's clash with Ecuador: start the versatile Undav in place of Kai Havertz or another one of Germany's big names, or continue utilising him as a super-sub.

"We will discuss both options, including with Deniz," the Germany boss revealed. "You could say: 'Why should I interrupt his flow?' He came on as a substitute twice and scored both times. But you could also say: 'What a great performance - he can play from the start too.'"

At the end of the day, it's not a bad problem for Nagelsmann to have, and it's a wonderfully surreal situation for Undav to find himself in. Just over three years ago, he couldn't hit a barn door for Brighton in the Premier League. Now he can't stop scoring for Germany at the World Cup.

"I'm enjoying it," the eminently lovable and highly unlikely Golden Boot contender admitted. "I'm just taking it all in." Because it really has been some journey, and a journey of which he is rightly proud.

"I think I've had to overcome a lot of hurdles," Undav told DW. "That's what made me a man." And the name on every German fan's lips at the 2026 World Cup.