Brighton & Hove Albion’s emerging midfielder Yasin Ayari painted his future at his boyhood club AIK Solna in Sweden.
“When he was a little kid, I remember he did a picture in his schoolwork of what he was going to be,” Peter Wennberg, head of AIK’s academy, tells The Athletic. He wrote that he was going to be a footballer and did a painting of himself playing football.
“He wrote he was going to be a pro player with two dogs, a house and a swimming pool. He was already focused. That signal from him has always been around his progress, so it’s not a surprise what he is doing now.”
Ayari has seized the moment to become a force at Brighton, establishing himself as the partner to Carlos Baleba in the engine room for head coach Fabian Hurzeler.
There had been lots of chopping and changing in the centre of the park until Dutch international Mats Wieffer sustained a leg injury shortly after scoring in the 1-1 draw at West Ham on December 21.
Ayari has stepped up alongside Baleba. The 21-year-olds combined to good effect for the fifth match in succession in Sunday’s 3-1 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Ayari is understated and underrated. While there is noise around the potential of Baleba, Ayari has gone quietly about the business of learning on the job. Hurzeler’s side had been winless for eight games in the Premier League — a run that included relinquishing leads in four of six draws — before completing a hat-trick of away victories against United, having beaten Norwich City 4-0 in the FA Cup and Ipswich Town 2-0.
“They suffer. They’ve had bad experiences. We’ve had a lot of giveaways during the season when we were leading,” said Hurzeler, speaking afterwards about his youthful midfield combination. “We did things that were not mature, that you cannot do if you want to win a Premier League game.
“We learnt from it and they showed that with very mature performances at such a young age. Yasin always wants to develop. He had an amazing pre-season. He has this attitude that he always gives more than 100 per cent and, with this motivation, you can achieve a lot of things.”
Ayari has formed a strong partnership with Baleba (Ian Hodgson/AFP via Getty Images)
The duo played a part in all three goals. Baleba’s pass from deep released Kaoru Mitoma to set up Yankuba Minteh for an early lead. A driving run through the middle of the pitch by Ayari enabled Mitoma to restore the advantage in the second half from Minteh’s cross. To cap off their influential contributions, Ayari’s low cross was spilt by United keeper Andre Onana for substitute Georginio Rutter to complete the scoring.
“Of course, he (Ayari) has a great talent,” Hurzeler said. “He understands the game quite well. He is good in narrow spaces, he has a good first touch. He is good at scanning. His improvement is a great example of the Brighton way. Improving young players with big potential, but in the end, it’s always the player and Yasin is a role model for trying to win every game and trying to improve.”
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Ayari was 19 when he arrived from AIK in Stockholm for £5million ($6.1m) on a deal until June 2027 during the winter transfer window in 2023.
His mother Amina is Tunisian, his father is from Morocco. Amina is the events manager at AIK, where Ayari was on books from the age of eight. Younger brother Taha, a winger, has made almost 40 first-team appearances for AIK since his debut as a late replacement for Ayari in September 2022.
The comfort blanket of family close at hand evaporated with the move to England. After one start and two substitute appearances in the Premier League under former head coach Roberto De Zerbi at the end of the 2022-23 campaign, Ayari was sent out on loan last year to Championship sides Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers.
Ayari at Coventry City (Jess Hornby/Getty Images)
Minutes were sporadic at both clubs. Ayari had 13 outings in the second tier under Mark Robins at Coventry, divided between starts and the bench before switching to Blackburn in January 2024, enticed by the prospect of working under Jon Dahl Tomasson. Ayari was aware of the Danish head coach from his spell in charge of Malmo in Sweden, but Tomasson parted company with Blackburn in February and was replaced by John Eustace.
Although Ayari only made two of 10 league appearances as a starter at Rovers, the loans were useful learning experiences, with guidance from the loans department in dealing with a narrative of adversity.
“With loans, it is what you take from it,” said Gordon Greer, Brighton’s loans manager. “Yasin was getting constructive feedback from Mark Robins about his game and what he had to do better. I also felt he was playing out of position (No 10) and it wasn’t helping him.
“He found it difficult in the beginning when he wasn’t playing. With a loan player sometimes, when they’ve signed for a big club and we have signed them for a reasonable amount of money, they expect to walk into any Championship team and it’s not the case. Yasin took quite a lot on board, started to look at his own game. He handled the situation much better as the loan developed.
“Jon Dahl was desperate to have him at Blackburn and plays him all the time now for the national team (Tomasson took charge of Sweden shortly after leaving Blackburn). When John Eustace went in there, he played a different formation and Yasin and Andy Moran (who was also at Blackburn on loan last season) weren’t part of his plans. But again, Yasin dealt with the situation much better.”
Ayari is thriving for his country under Tomasson. He impressed on his fifth start in a 2-1 win against Slovakia in the Nations League in November. The line-up included Newcastle’s Alexandar Isak, Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski and Sporting CP’s former Brighton striker Viktor Gyokeres.
“We’re building a new team, but also a very young team,” Tomasson said afterwards. “There are many players who haven’t made that many national team appearances. When it comes to Ayari, he takes enormous steps. It was delightful to see his performance.”
Ayari celebrates scoring for Sweden in October (Joe Klamar KLAMAR/AFP via Getty Images)
Ayari knows he will have to keep delivering to stave off challengers for his place in Brighton’s quest to qualify for Europe via a high league finish or by winning the FA Cup. Winless at home since early November, they begin a sequence of five of the next seven matches at the Amex Stadium against Everton on Saturday, including successive games against Chelsea in February in the league and the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Wieffer, Jack Hinshelwood and Matt O’Riley will all be itching to return from injury lay-offs of varying lengths, while January signing Diego Gomez made his debut as a stoppage-time substitute at Old Trafford.
Ayari will not take his foot off the gas. It is in his DNA to keep his career on an upward trajectory.
“We are in contact and we have a saying when we text: ‘This too shall pass’, especially when he is making huge progress,” Wennberg said. “It means that there is always a new standard to set.”
(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
