How Stuttgart have completed the signing of the summer with Deniz Undav

Ronan Murphy

• Updated: 20 Aug 2024 15:02 BST
• 4 min read

As Bayer Leverkusen's players passed the German Supercup between themselves after a dramatic penalty shootout victory over Stuttgart, one of the players from the losing side carried a trophy of his own, proudly perching it on his shoulder after another of his regularly impressive performances.

Striker Deniz Undav chatted to reporters in the mixed zone after the game, clutching the Man of the Match award that had so rightly come his way after his ramrodding showing in attack looked to have guided Stuttgart to a shock win over last season's Bundesliga champions.

As always with Xabi Alonso, Bayer Leverkusen scored a late goal, snatching a late draw to send the game to penalties, where Undav again could not be stopped, but Stuttgart as a whole, could.

Like Leverkusen's late comebacks, Undav's trademark attacking impact has become so regular to no longer be notable. But in bringing the Germany international back to the Bundesliga, Stuttgart have pulled off the transfer coup of the summer.

READ MORE: Premier League summer transfers 2024: All the Done Deals

So many teams are crying out for an old-school striker to score the goals for them, and Stuttgart pulled off a coup after convincing him of their project during last season's blistering loan spell.

VfB paid Brighton €30 million and tied Undav down to a four-year deal, having seen the 28-year-old score 18 goals and provide 10 assists in 30 Bundesliga games last season to help Stuttgart finish above Bayern Munich.

Undav returns to Stuttgart from Brighton

Brighton wanted to keep Undav in the Premier League, but the striker was determined to return to Stuttgart, where he is one of the most important members of the squad.

Christian Gentner is the Head of Player Licensing at Stuttgart, and revealed that he feels Undav never left the club.

"For us, he is not back, he was always with us," Genter told FootballTransfers.

"That's the big advantage. From the first day he came back, he was always one of the leaders. We are happy to have him."

Former Stuttgart and Germany striker Cacau, who saw his and Mario Gomez's duo scoring record broken by Undav and Serhou Guirassy last season, is optimistic that Undav will pick up where he left off.

Gomez and Cacau's goals were crucial back in 2006-07 when Stuttgart won the Bundesliga, and with Guirassy now gone to Borussia Dortmund, Undav will have to be the primary goalscorer alongside new striker Ermedin Demirovic.

"I hope they come from Undav again," Cacau told FootballTransfers.

"I hope to see the best version of Demirovic, but he has a different profile to Guirassy. He was technically amazing, he scored every game. I hope, but I am not sure if Demirovic can give the same.

"The transfer of Undav is very important to the team. I hope Demirovic will score too, more than me, that won't be a problem!"

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Undav showed last season that he is capable of scoring all sorts of goals, with his first seven Bundesliga strikes coming from a variety of places: three with his head, two with his left foot and two with his right foot.

He also was named Player of the Month in both November and January, and outscored international team-mate Niclas Fullkrug who also completed a big-money move this summer.

Graham Potter once explained what makes Undav so good: "He's had a really interesting career. He's had to fight a lot to get where he is now and that shows a lot about his character. He’s a goalscorer who makes players better around him."

When Undav repeats his success at Stuttgart, a lot of clubs will be kicking themselves they didn't do more to try and secure his services this summer.

Strikers like Undav don't come along very often.