Royale Union Saint-Gilloise are leading the Jupiler Pro League table, with Deniz Undav starring for them, scoring 20 goals and registering 10 assists from 26 league matches.
Brighton & Hove Albion and a few other clubs in Germany showed interest in signing the 25-year-old in the winter market.
Graham Potter’s side finally won the transfer battle and after finding an agreement with the Belgian side, the Seagulls allowed the striker to rejoin Union Saint-Gilloise on a loan deal until the end of the season.
Both clubs are owned, or partially owned, by Tony Bloom and this connection made it easier for Brighton to find an agreement for the attacker’s transfer.
Undav will arrive at The Amex in the summer and Union Saint-Gilloise will be hoping he can guide them to league success before he moves to the Premier League.
Gazet van Antwerpen have published an interview with Alex Muzio, the chairman and co-owner of Union Saint-Gilloise, where he detailed how firm he was on keeping Undav at the club.
“The Brighton chairman has my number. I told him that I absolutely wanted Undav to play for us in February and we came to an agreement,” Muzio said.
The Belgian club’s chief stressed Bloom is Union Saint-Gilloise’s “co-owner”. When pressed if this leads to conflict of interest for him, Muzio explained: “Tony Bloom is the majority shareholder of Union and sole owner of Brighton.
“I know that people quickly say: it’s all Tony. But I don’t have any money in Brighton at all. I’ve put a lot more of my money into Union than Tony, relative to my equity.
“So Tony is the boss at Brighton, I make decisions for Union and I don’t care about the rest. If we could have found a better arrangement with another team, Undav would have gone there.”
