From Estonia's Third Tier to the Premier League: He Says He Was Just a Backpacker

At Chelsea's home ground Stamford Bridge, Brighton new signing Promise David made his Premier League debut — coming on as a substitute, with the team eventually losing 3-4 to Chelsea. But more intriguing than the defeat was the striker's background: Croatia's third tier, the United States' second tier, Malta, Estonia's third tier, then Belgium, and finally the Premier League.

“They have a great data scouting system, that's all I can say.” David recalled the moment Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise first contacted him, a contact that changed the career path of Brighton's new forward.

“They picked me out of nowhere, but they said they had been following me for a while,” he added. “At first, I thought it was spam, like a scam. Because if you are playing in the third tier in Estonia, you don't expect a team playing in the Europa League to call you. But they did, and I went. A few months later, I had the best time of my life.”

“I thought it was a scam message”

At the time, David was at Estonian club Nõmme Kalju, regularly representing the U21 team in the third tier, when he received a message from Union Saint-Gilloise. “Me and my agent at the time both saw it, and I said, ‘No, this is not real,’” he said. “Then we sat in a Zoom video meeting and I said, ‘Oh my God, it really is them.’”

“They gave me the full introduction, but I had already said yes before the introduction. It was like sitting in an interview, you had already accepted the job, and they were still talking about all this stuff, while I was already there. Halfway through the call I started packing my bags, thinking about how to put everything together. Then, two weeks later, I showed up in Belgium.”

“A good place found me”

It is not difficult to understand why David was eager to move to Union Saint-Gilloise two years ago — the Brussels-based Belgian top-flight club in which Brighton owner and chairman Tony Bloom is a minority shareholder. When he lists his career path, it sounds more like a student's European backpacking gap year than the glamorous backdrop to making his Premier League debut as a substitute in Brighton's 4-3 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday.

“I spent a year and a half in Croatia's third division (Trnje). Eight months in the US second tier (Tulsa), without playing,” he told a small group of reporters after making his Premier League debut at Stamford Bridge. “A year in Malta (Valletta)…”