Albion Analytics: Diego Gomez

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2025-01-08T06:00+00:00

Diego Gomez joined Albion from Inter Miami. 📷 by James Boardman.

Albion confirmed their first signing of the 2024/25 winter transfer window with the arrival of Diego Gomez from Inter Miami.

The 21-year-old midfielder is a graduate of Libertad in Paraguay, the same club Albion signed Julio Enciso from.

Gomez joins an already young Brighton team, with only Chelsea having a younger average age in the Premier League this season (24, Brighton 25.7), while head coach Fabian Hurzeler has shown faith in young midfielders Carlos Baleba (20), Yasin Ayari (21) and Jack Hinshelwood (19).

Diego Gomez has played 12 times for Paraguay and scored against Brazil in a recent World Cup qualifier.

Last season, Gomez was part of a star-studded Inter Miami team which topped the Eastern Conference in the regular season but were eliminated by Atlanta United in the play-offs. Tomas Aviles was the only teammate younger than Gomez to also play more minutes than him.

Gomez ranked fourth for involvements in non-penalty shot ending sequences (per game) at Inter Miami in 2024, only behind Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba.

That trio are a high bar to compare the youngster against, and he shines when isolating his output versus those his age. Among the 54 under-21s to play over 900 MLS minutes last season, Gomez ranked in the top five for expected assists (5.04), big chances created (11), through balls (6) and touches in the opposition box (86).

Albion's Paraguayan duo. 📷 by James Boardman.

He struck up a particularly strong connection with Luis Suarez last season, setting him up four times — only Suarez to Messi, Messi to Suarez (both 5 goals) and Alba to Messi (6) were better combinations for Inter Miami.

At 6ft 1in, he’s capable of being a physical, front-footed, duelling midfielder too. Gomez attempted the most tackles per-game (3.2) of any Inter Miami player in the MLS in 2024, and was the only player in the squad to attempt ten-plus tackles in each third of the pitch. Though his success rate of 37.5% when challenging dribbling opponents is a metric to improve, that is something which naturally comes with age and experience.

He debuted for Paraguay in September 2022, aged only 19, 5 months and 5 days, coming on as a substitute in their first win over Mexico since 2007. Since Gomez’s birth in 2003, just 12 players have debuted for Paraguay while younger than he was against Mexico (including Enciso), and there are only four midfielders on that list. Likewise, he’s one of seven Libertad players to score a Copa Libertadores goal before their 21st birthday.

Diego Gomez celebrates a goal with his Inter Miami teammate Lionel Messi.

Gomez’s positional versatility has shown for his national team, as he played left-wing with Enciso No 10 in Paraguay’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Brazil. Gomez scored the winner, an audacious outside-the-foot curler from the edge of the box, in off-the-post, giving Paraguay a first win against Brazil since 2015.

They only had 29% possession that match and Gomez was required to put in a defensive shift, completing all five of his tackles and winning eight of 13 ground duels, almost as many as the number of passes he made (15, 13 completed).

His individual numbers tell a partial story but it is clear how much better Inter Miami were collectively when Gomez started last season. They won 13 of 18 games with him in the starting XI (72%), only losing twice, and outscored opponents 43-20, compared to ten wins from 19 (52%) without Gomez, and a goal difference of only plus-six.