Verbruggen, Rushworth, Beadle, Steele: What does the future hold for Brighton’s goalkeepers? – The Athletic
Carl Rushworth, one of England’s brightest young goalkeepers, is set to make his Premier League debut next season.
The only question is whether it will be with parent club Brighton & Hove Albion, loan club Coventry City, or another top-flight side impressed enough to sign him in the summer.
It is not a matter of if but when Championship leaders Coventry City are officially promoted. Ten points clear at the top of the table with four games to go, Frank Lampard’s side only need a draw at Blackburn Rovers on Friday night to seal a return to the elite after an absence of 25 years.
Rushworth has played a significant role in their success. The 24-year-old, picked by Lampard for all 42 league games so far, kept his 16th clean sheet — the most in the division — in Saturday’s 0-0 home draw against relegated whipping boys Sheffield Wednesday. He has been shortlisted with Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney, Millwall’s Femi Azeez, and Zan Vipotnik of Swansea City for the Championship player of the year award.
Carl Rushworth rises to punch clear against Charlton Athletic (Sally Rawlins/Getty Images)
Rushworth is hot property. His future is about to come to the boil, with Brighton assessing their goalkeeping options for the 2026-27 campaign.
They have developed Rushworth successfully via the loan market, with temporary moves to Walsall in League Two (2021-22), Lincoln City in League One (2022-23), then in the Championship at Swansea City (2023-24), Hull City (2024-25) and now Coventry.
The goalkeeper has a year left on his contract, with Brighton holding an option for a further year. But he has made it clear he will sign another deal and will only stay if the current status quo with Bart Verbruggen as No 1 and Jason Steele as No 2 changes.
There is plenty of potential for Brighton to cash in on the talent they recognised when signing Rushworth as a teenager from his local club, Halifax Town, in 2019. Regular appearances in the Premier League would be virtually guaranteed if the move to Coventry became permanent.
His exploits with the Championship leaders have alerted existing Premier League clubs weighing up their goalkeeper options next season, too. Rushworth would command a healthy fee if he severed his ties without ever featuring in the Premier League for Brighton.
He turns 25 at the beginning of July and is 13 months older than Verbruggen, who is set to make his 100th appearance for the club at Tottenham on Saturday. Rushworth is keen to settle his future once and for all, if not at Brighton then elsewhere.
A move for Verbruggen this summer would open a pathway into the team. Both Rushworth and Brighton want clarity before Verbruggen heads off to the World Cup with the Netherlands. The 23-year-old has been linked with Bayern Munich, having played previously under Vincent Kompany at Anderlecht.
Bart Verbruggen is Brighton’s No 1 (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
A contract extension at Bayern is still a possibility for Manuel Neuer. As things stand, the 40-year-old’s deal expires in the summer, but his performances — while more volatile than they once were — still place him among the top tier of goalkeepers in European football.
Jonas Urbig is currently his intended successor. Urbig has been Neuer’s backup for the past year, since moving from Koln, and has had encouraging moments, albeit mixed with the occasional mistake, which suggests he is not quite ready to step up on a full-time basis.
In addition, Alexander Nubel remains a Bayern player. Nubel joined Bayern in 2020, but he has spent the past five seasons out on loan. He currently plays for Stuttgart, where he has become a fixture within Julian Nagelsmann’s national squad — he is second choice, behind Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann — and he could also yet play a role in what happens next.
Bayern are not the only leading European club who could be attracted to Verbruggen. His form at Brighton has scaled new heights this season under goalkeeper coach Jelle ten Rouwelaar, his former coach at Anderlecht with Kompany. He has not been beaten away from home in the league by an opposition player since the rare blemish when he should have done better with Harry Wilson’s stoppage-time winner from a free kick at Fulham (2-1) in January.
Over four-and-a-half hours’ playing time has elapsed in clean sheet victories at Brentford (2-0), Sunderland (1-0) and Burnley since Jack Hinshelwood headed past Verbruggen into his own net in the 86th minute for the only goal of the game at Aston Villa in February.
“In possession, he makes much calmer decisions, more right decisions than he did before. Out of possession, he’s much more present,” head coach Fabian Hurzeler said of Verbruggen in March.
The Dutchman, under contract at Brighton until June 2028, would command a chunky fee if he were sold.
Jason Steele has operated as Verbruggen’s backup (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
How does Steele fit into all of this? His value on and off the pitch was illustrated by his first senior call-up to Thomas Tuchel’s England squad at the age of 35 for recent friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.
Steele has been at Brighton since joining on a free transfer from Sunderland in 2018. He is settled on the south coast with his family and, in October, signed a contract extension until June 2027.
Hurzeler’s admiration for Steele is matched by former head coach Roberto De Zerbi, who takes charge of Tottenham for the first time at home against Brighton on Saturday. The Italian promoted Steele at the expense of then-No 1 Robert Sanchez — primarily because of his capabilities with the ball at his feet — for 15 of the last 16 games in 2022-23, as qualification for UEFA competition was achieved for the only time so far in the club’s history with a sixth-placed finish.
De Zerbi then rotated between Verbruggen and Steele the following season, when Brighton reached the last 16 of the Europa League.
It would not be a surprise if both goalkeepers are on De Zerbi’s watch-list for a summer rebuild with a view to signing one of them, but that would be dependent on Tottenham escaping relegation from their current precarious position. Even in those circumstances, the uptake would be for financial rather than football reasons, but the prime motivation for Verbruggen and Steele is not money.
The Brighton way of often having potential replacements in place when outfield players move on applies to goalkeepers as well.
They are developing 21-year-old James Beadle in a similar fashion to Rushworth — via the loan market. Beadle had spells at Crewe in League Two in 2022-23, and Oxford in League One and Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship in 2023-24. He was back at Hillsborough with Wednesday again in 2024-25.
James Beadle is playing with Birmingham City this season (Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
This season, the 6ft 7in (201cm) prospect is on loan in the Championship once again, this time with mid-table Birmingham City.
It has been another learning curve for Beadle. There have been eight clean sheets across 34 outings in all competitions, but he has also endured some criticism from fans.
“James is a young goalkeeper with huge promise and he’s come here to impact this season and develop,” Birmingham manager Chris Davies told reporters following an unconvincing display by Beadle in a 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough in March. “He will have done that, whatever happens at the end of the season. He’s an exceptional goalkeeper.”
Beadle’s progress has led to 16 appearances in the England Under-21s since September 2024, which is an indication of his quality.
In that context, Brighton’s goalkeeping department feels healthy and potentially lucrative, but there is a strong chance this summer that either Rushworth or Verbruggen will be sold. A rejigging of sorts is imminent.
Additional reporting: Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
