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Ayari vows to look after fellow AIK product Yohanna at Brighton

ยทBy Junior Yekini
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Ayari vows to look after fellow AIK product Yohanna at Brighton

Brighton/X.com

Yasin Ayari left AIK for Brighton & Hove Albion in January 2023, and the 22-year-old has gone on to enjoy a fine season in the Premier League, scoring three goals and adding three assists in 29 appearances.

Earlier this month it was confirmed that fellow AIK product Zadok Yohanna, 18, would also be making the move to Brighton.

Ayari spoke to Fotbollskanalen about his feelings on Yohanna's switch.

"It'll be fun. I haven't seen that much of him in Allsvenskan, but it'll be good to get started and see how it goes for him," Ayari said.

Yohanna has signed a contract running until the summer of 2031, while Ayari's own deal runs to 2027.

The pair's club futures came as Sweden opened their World Cup campaign with a 5-1 win over Tunisia, in which Ayari scored twice in an impressive individual display.

The 22-year-old believes Yohanna will settle in quickly at Brighton.

"I'll take care of him, but a lot of people will take care of him. It's a family club, so it should go well," Ayari said.

Sweden's next World Cup fixture comes on Saturday, when they travel to face the Netherlands.

Both players represent the latest examples of Swedish and AIK-developed talent making the switch to Brighton, a club that has built a reputation in recent years for recruiting promising young Scandinavian players and developing them into Premier League regulars.

For Ayari, the timing means he will be balancing senior responsibility within Sweden's World Cup squad with the role of informal mentor to a teenager about to follow the same path he took through English football just over three years ago.

Brighton's recruitment department has earned a reputation across European football for identifying undervalued talent at clubs outside the continent's traditional power bases, and the swift progression of both Swedish internationals through their system stands as one of the clearest examples of that model working as intended.