Brighton and Hove Albion have completed the signing of Promise David (£6.0m) on a season-long loan from Royale Union Saint-Gilloise with an obligation to buy for a reported £22m.
The arrival of the Canadian striker provides Seagulls boss Fabian Hurzeler with a fresh option in a position where his squad was looking a little light on depth.
However, could David spell trouble for the prospects of popular Fantasy Premier League (FPL) pick Pascal Gross (£5.5m)?
WHO IS DAVID?
First, a word on the newcomer.
David, 25, arrives from Union Saint-Gilloise (USG), a club in which Seagulls owner Tony Bloom is a shareholder.
He scored 41 goals and assisted nine more in 82 appearances across all competitions for the Belgian side, including two in the opening round of last season’s Champions League.
He represented Canada at their home World Cup this summer, registering a goal and assist, and delivered the same pair of attacking returns in USG’s first Jupiler Pro League match of 2026/27 on August 8.
Standing at 6ft 5ins, he will certainly give his new teammates a prime target for crosses even if just one of his goals last season came by way of a header.
WHERE DOES DAVID FIT IN AT BRIGHTON?
Well, the obvious answer is that he fills the gap at centre forward left by Danny Welbeck’s (£6.0m) decision to join Chelsea.
Hurzeler’s 4-2-3-1 was, until David’s arrival, lacking a natural focal point up top, given that neither Georginio Rutter (£5.5m) – previously the punters’ favourite to lead the line – or Charalampos Kostoulas (£5.5m) are natural strikers. Stefanos Tzimas (£5.5m) and Evan Ferguson (£5.0m) are unavailable due to injuries.
We would therefore expect the new loanee to be first-choice as soon as he is ready to start.
That could well be sooner rather than later, given he has already featured for USG since the World Cup.
COULD DAVID TAKE PENALTIES FROM GROSS?
One key question that remains, then, is whether David’s arrival dents the appeal of new teammate Gross.
The German midfielder is comfortably Brighton’s most popular FPL outfielder at the time of writing, sitting in just over 13% of squads.
Much of the appeal has centred – in addition to his domination of corners and many free-kicks plus solid chance creation numbers – on his likelihood of taking penalties now that previous regular takers Welbeck and James Milner are gone.
Gross had a share of spot-kick duties in his first spell at Brighton and scored from 12 yards against Strasbourg during pre-season, sparking the speculation that he would take up the mantle.
He has only scored one competitive penalty in the last five years, though, and his record with the Seagulls stands at a modest 66.7% success rate (six scored, three missed) compared to 75% overall in his career (12 scored, four missed).
Which brings us to David.
The Canadian striker has taken 12 competitive penalties in his career since the 2022/23 season and scored 10 of them, giving him a superior conversion rate of 83.3%.
That alone suggests David would have a basis for demanding to be first-choice from the spot, provided (a) he wants to, and (b) Gross doesn’t pull the seniority card!
There’s also the fact that all but two of David’s spot-kicks have been taken in the last two seasons: eight scored, two saved. David was not on the pitch when three other penalties were taken by his USG teammates last term.
To conclude, we may well have to wait until Brighton get their first penalty of the campaign to know with more certainty who the first choice taker will be.
On this evidence, though, it’s probably fair to say there’s less of a chance of that being Gross than there was prior to David arriving at the Amex Stadium.
Either way, if David can bring some clinical finishing to this loan spell, a big target man like himself could at least be good news for his teammates like Gross when it comes to converting the chances they create into goals.
