Irish-Ghanaian ex-footballer, Chris Hughton leaves Brighton and Hove Albion

Brighton & Hove Albion have confirmed that Chris Hughton has left the club with immediate effect. Hughton’s assistant Paul Trollope and first-team coach Paul Nevin have also left.

Chairman Tony Bloom said, “Chris has done an excellent job over the past four and a half years. First stabilising our club, reaching the play-offs in his first full season, securing our first-ever promotion to the Premier League, and retaining our status in two successive seasons.

Former British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin tweeted to wish Hughton well with his future endeavours:

The club have confirmed that the process to find Chris’s successor is underway, and that there will be no further comment at this stage.

Christopher William Gerard Hughton was born on 11 December 1958 in Forest Gate, then part of Essex, now part of London, to a Ghanaian postman, Willie Hughton, and his Irish wife Christine née Bourke. Having an African background Chris qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland as the son of an Irish mother and a Ghanaian father, becoming the first mixed-race player to represent the country.

He played 53 matches for the Irish National team. He began his football career with Tottenham Hotspur as a left back and made his debut against Manchester United. As a member of the Tottenham’s 1980’s class, he won both the 1981 FA Cup and the 1982 FA Cup, the 1984 UEFA Cup and was runner-up in the 1982 League Cup and the 1987 FA Cup. C