16:00, 04 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_JS367007278.jpg\")
Bristol Rovers academy graduate Kofi Shaw joined Brighton last week(Image: Will Cooper\/PPAUK)<\/p>\n
Bristol Rovers\u2019 director of football Ricky Martin has expressed his pride following the sale of academy product Kofi Shaw to Premier League club Brighton and Hove Albion in what has been described as a “very complicated deal.”<\/p>\n
Shaw, who joined Rovers as a 14-year-old, is set to link up with the Seagulls\u2019 under-21s after swapping the South West for the South Coast on Friday in a deal that is expected to reach the seven-figure mark. <\/a>The news of his departure was then followed by the announcement of striker Fabrizio Cavegn\u2019s arrival from FC Vaduz.<\/a><\/p>\n The 18-year-old leaves the Gas with 19 senior appearances to his name having broken through as a first team regular in the second half of last season following a loan spell at Yeovil Town.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Alfie Kilgour makes ‘surreal’ captaincy claim following defender’s summer Bristol Rovers return<\/a>READ MORE: Former Bristol Rovers midfielder links up with ex-Gas teammate at West Country club<\/a><\/p>\n Although the Pirates have had to say goodbye to one of their own, seeing a player developed in house head to a Premier League club has been seen as a proud moment for the academy.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat that\u2019s enabled us to do is bring in Fabrizio,\u201d Martin told BBC Radio Bristol <\/a>ahead of Saturday\u2019s 1-0 defeat to Harrogate Town. \u201cDoing that bit of trading has then enabled us to go in and recruit new talent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really proud of what Kofi\u2019s done to date. 19 senior appearances, broke into the first team from the academy. I want to put a word out now to say how well the academy has done to produce these types of players. I\u2019m really proud for Byron [Anthony] and his team. They\u2019re going to get some recognition, and rightly so, because that productivity has enabled us to generate some income that has been able to be reinvested into the squad.<\/p>\n \u201cThat got asked the other night; what happens when we generate money? We\u2019ve shown evidence already that there\u2019s a tactical play. We announced Kofi, and then we announced a transfer that we\u2019ve gone and purchased. So that\u2019s a clear message to our supporters and everyone out there in the football world that we are here to do business and make the right transactions for the club.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the fee remains undisclosed, it is understood to be a significant deal for Rovers which will hopefully generate further income as Shaw progresses.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very complicated deal, like you would expect from a young player, because we are trying to predict what he could do in the future,\u201d Martin added. \u201cYou have to put lots of different milestones in there, but yeah I can assure you that I\u2019ve negotiated over many deals and I was really tough on this one.<\/p>\n \u201cI think on both parties we\u2019re really happy, but really proud as well. I think we want to get that out there that Kofi deserves this opportunity for a well-run club like Brighton. If they come crawling for one of your players, that\u2019s a real tick on us as well that we\u2019re doing some good work and we\u2019ve got some real talent.\u201d<\/p>\n Rumours linking the teenage attacking midfielder to Brighton and other Premier League clubs first surfaced last season with some speculation suggesting that the 18-year-old could be loaned back to the Gas.<\/p>\n Although that won\u2019t be the case this season, Martin didn\u2019t rule it out as a possibility for the future.<\/p>\n Bristol Rovers are preparing for a new season in League Two with Darrell Clarke back at the helm and you won’t miss a beat with our free newsletter.<\/p>\n All the latest news, views, interviews, gossip and analysis concerning the Gas, delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n It’s completely free and you can sign up HERE<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou never say never. Let\u2019s see what happens in 12, 18 months. I\u2019m sure if he\u2019s looking for first team football, and we\u2019re back in League One, we\u2019d be a bigger attraction to him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were never going to say never, but ultimately we wish him well and hope that he makes that transition into Brighton as smooth as he can and it\u2019s a really exciting time for him. But we move on, and we already have moved on by bringing in Fabrizio and Ellis to complement our strikers.\u201d<\/p>\n Friday evening also saw another academy graduate leave the club, albeit on loan, in Jed Ward, who has joined National League side Yeovil Town on a season-long loan.<\/p>\n Bristol Live first reported that Ward was likely to head out on loan this summer following the arrival of Luke Southwood last month, as well as Brad Young, with game time set to be limited this season.<\/p>\n Despite Ward playing in Rovers\u2019 final 18 games of last season following his recall from Forest Green Rovers in February, the club have made the decision to send the 22-year-old out on loan again in order to ensure regular minutes to aid his development.<\/p>\n Join Bristol Rovers Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Rovers stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol Rovers Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n Asked if there is still a pathway for Ward at the Gas, Martin declared: \u201cYeah, 100 per cent. He could have easily been here fighting out for the number one shirt but his game time would have been limited, we feel. You can never predict every game how it\u2019s going to go but you have to make some kind of predictions and we feel that it would be better for Jed.<\/p>\n \u201cGoalkeepers and strikers, goalkeepers need to play games and keep clean sheets, strikers need to play games and score goals. It doesn\u2019t matter what level you do, if you\u2019re a goalkeeper and you keep clean sheets or you\u2019re a striker and you score goals, you\u2019ll get noticed.<\/p>\n \u201cJed goes out, plays and keeps clean sheets, does well for Yeovil and helps them have a competitive season, he will come back a better player.\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: Darrell Clarke sets integration expectation for ‘wildcard’ Fabrizio Cavegn at Bristol Rovers<\/a>READ MORE: EFL summer transfer window LIVE: Bristol City, Bristol Rovers and rivals look to add to squads<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Rovers academy graduate Kofi Shaw was sold to Premier League club Brighton and Hove Albion last week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[192,381,10648,2707,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-318763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-bristol-live","11":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114973995509626957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250513_DCSigns_WC063-copy.jpg\")
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