On Friday, Chelsea became the latest club to consider entering the race for Evan Ferguson, becoming the sixth Premier League club interested in signing the £40m-rated Brighton forward before the transfer deadline. The 20-year-old has struggled for form under new Seagulls manager Fabian Hurzeler this season, but news of his possible availability has sparked interest among clubs looking to bolster their attacking ranks.

The Blues - who have previously enticed players like Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella from the south coast to west London - have been tracking Ferguson since he broke into the first team in 2022. Just a year later, Brighton were so keen to keep their teen star, they handed him a contract extension that would keep him at the club until 2029. In the wake of that deal, Mail Sport's CHRIS SUTTON travelled to Brighton in November 2023 to meet with the teenage talent to learn more about what makes the nerveless striker tick.

You might think the wonderkid wrecking the egos of Premier League defenders would have an overinflated amour-propre of his own. You would be wrong. As Chris Sutton discovered when he met the starlet in 2023, Evan Ferguson is as down to earth as the Crocs he wears on his feet. An afternoon spent at Brighton’s training ground in Lancing taught Mail Sport’s columnist there is nothing egotistical about this 19-year-old striker from the seaside village of Bettystown in the Republic of Ireland. Nothing flash. Nothing obnoxious. Just a nice, normal, laid-back lad who is taking his rise towards stardom in his stride.

Mail Sport columnist Chris Sutton spent time with Brighton striker Evan Ferguson in late 2023. Ferguson is among the most explosive prospects in football and enjoyed a fine early spell at Brighton. A sizeable stride he has, too. At 6ft 2in with long limbs and broad shoulders, Ferguson is a colossus you could take a walk around and certainly not someone you would wish to mark on a football field. A few defenders have tried to their demise, with Ferguson the first teenager since Wayne Rooney in 2005 to score at least 10 Premier League goals in a calendar year.

Many believe the ambipedal Ferguson is Brighton’s next £100million man in waiting but he is in no rush to prove those predictions right, as evidenced by Friday's news. At 10am, his club announced his new contract until 2029, providing added protection amid increasing interest from Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and more. ‘I’m happy here,’ the softly-spoken striker tells Sutton in his Irish drawl. ‘I played Gaelic. Nothing serious. Just in school. Irish sport. Rougher than football. But this is all I ever wanted to do growing up. I came over here at 16 and this is all I’ve known. They gave me my first opportunity and I’m grateful for that. I’ve signed this new deal and it’s all good news. You see it as a reward for what you’ve done, and it’s loyalty to them, you know?’.

Sutton: ‘I remember when I was your age. I’d made my debut for Norwich and to put it mildly, I was full of s***. I was very cocky and sure of myself. But you don’t strike me as that type.’. Ferguson: ‘I’m laid-back as a person, relaxed, nothing too much.’ Sutton: ‘You must have that nasty streak in you, though?’. Ferguson: ‘Definitely. People in football will tell you, “He’s a nice bloke off the pitch but on the pitch…” It’s like two different personalities. We’re just sitting here talking but on the pitch, well, you know what it’s like.’.

Listening to Ferguson, you get the sense that if he was any more laid-back, he’d be horizontal. Here, though, the lad that many with Irish accents are describing as a generational talent is sitting upright in his Brighton tracksuit across from Sutton. His journey to here began with St Kevin’s Boys Football Club, the prestigious talent factory in Dublin that was responsible for producing future international footballers such as Liam Brady, Damian Duff, Ian Harte, Robbie Brady and, of course, Ferguson. He led the line for St Kevin’s in the 2017 Academy Cup final against Barcelona. ‘I scored twice and we still lost,’ he recalls. ‘Bloody defenders,’ replies Sutton.

The Irishman committed his future to the Seagulls by extending his contract until 2029 half-way through the 2023-24 season. Ferguson was the first teenager since Wayne Rooney in 2005 to score at least 10 Premier League goals in a calendar year and has netted 17 times in 79 appearances for Brighton in total. From there, Ferguson moved to Dublin’s oldest football club Bohemians. He was 14 – yes, 14 – when he made his senior debut in a pre-season friendly against Chelsea in July 2019. Footage shows this Colaiste na hInse schoolboy troubling Trevor Chalobah, tackling Kurt Zouma, skinning Tiemoue Bakayoko, and deploying a clever dummy as his team made it 1-1 to deny Frank Lampard the win in his first game in charge.