Femi Azeez set for Brighton move: 4 interesting facts Seagulls should know about Super Eagles star

Super Eagles winger Femi Azeez is set to complete a deadline-day move to Brighton & Hove Albion, Afrik-Foot reports.

According to David Ornstein, the Seagulls have reached an agreement with Millwall to sign Femi Azeez.

🚨 EXCL: Brighton & Hove Albion reach agreement with Millwall to sign Femi Azeez. Deal for 25yo #Millwall winger initial £12.5m (package just over £15m) & Nigeria int’l given permission to do medical ahead of joining #BHAFC on 4+1yr contract @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/uFF3Mq7MjS

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) September 1, 2026

An initial £12.5m (package just over £15m) has been sanctioned, and the 25-year-old will head to the Amex to complete his medical ahead of putting pen to paper on a four-year contract until June 2030, with Brighton holding an option to extend for a further 12 months.

The deal marks a club-record sale for Millwall, who signed Azeez from Reading for around £1 million in 2024, and makes him Brighton’s 11th signing of the summer and the second Nigerian to join the Amex this window after Zadok Yohanna’s £21.5 million arrival from AIK.

4 interesting facts about Femi Azeez

1. He was released by Watford at 14

The first thing to know about Azeez is that he was very nearly not a footballer at all.

He joined Watford’s youth academy at the age of nine but was released at 14, a setback that removed him from the professional pyramid entirely.

Rather than walking away from the game, he restarted his career with non-league sides.

He made his senior debut for Northwood in the Southern League Division One Central at 16, spent time at Wealdstone in the National League South, and had a loan stint at Hanwell Town before Reading gave him his route back into the professional game in 2019.

From step-five non-league football to a £15 million Premier League transfer inside seven years is a brilliant career arc.

The rebuild peaked in the 2025/26 season, when Azeez was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year after scoring 11 goals and providing seven assists in 37 appearances.

2. Oluwafemi Azeez is Nigerian, Spanish and English

Brighton are not signing a player whose identity is easy to place. Azeez was born in Westminster to a Nigerian father and a Spanish mother, grew up in Northwood in outer London, and carries a full name that reflects each side of that heritage in Oluwafemi Javier Azeez Beloso.

That mix of eligibility also cleared his path to the Super Eagles. Because Azeez never represented England or Spain at any youth level, FIFA regulations allowed him to declare for Nigeria without needing to submit a formal one-time change of association request.

3. He’s from a football family

Football runs on both sides of the Azeez family. Femi’s younger brother Miguel Azeez came through Arsenal’s youth system and is also a professional footballer, having made senior appearances for the Gunners in cup competitions before continuing his career on loan.

Miguel has had stints with UD Ibiza and CD Atlético Baleares in the lower tiers of Spanish football, and has also played for Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic.

The central midfielder currently plies his trade with National League side Carlisle United.

4. He scored a brace on his Super Eagles debut

The signature moment of Azeez’s international career so far arrived in May 2026, when he made his Nigeria debut at the Unity Cup in London and scored twice in a 2-0 win over Zimbabwe to send the Super Eagles into the final of the four-nation tournament.

It was the kind of introduction that instantly put him on Éric Chelle’s radar and shifted him from prospect to first-team consideration in a single evening.

For a player who had waited more than a decade from his Watford release to earn senior international recognition, the two goals against Zimbabwe boosted his chances of becoming a regular for the three-time African Champions.