(Image credit: Future)
Amario Cozier-Duberry came through Arsenal’s Hale End academy and was tipped to become the next cab off the rack for a club who have handed ample opportunities to young superstars.
But in 2024, Cozier-Duberry was still waiting for his Gunners debut – and he turned his back on a contract offer at Arsenal in favour of joining Brighton & Hove Albion instead.
Chris Flanagan: “When I saw Amario Cozier-Duberry, I wondered whether we’d signed the next Bukayo Saka.”What is ‘The Boy’s A Bit Special’?
FourFourTwo’s long-running ‘The Boy’s A Bit Special’ feature has been going since the magazine’s first issue, highlighting the best young players in the United Kingdom and abroad.
As of September 2025, we’ve given it a revamp. Our youth football expert Joe Donnohue will be profiling four teenagers each month, explaining why they’re, well, a bit special.
I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard of Amario Cozier-Duberry when he signed for Bolton – one look at his under 21s highlights reel though, and I wondered whether we’d signed the next Bukayo Saka.
A diminutive left-footed right winger, he quickly became a fans’ favourite by pinging a stunning goal into the top corner in pre-season at Hibernian. He’s done that several times since in competitive matches – give him space to shoot on the edge of the box, and you’ve had it.
Cozier-Duberry celebrates netting against Cardiff (Image credit: Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)Show him on to his right foot, and he can dart to the byline and set up a goal that way, too.
With seven goals and six assists by mid-November, he’s been a League One cheat code so far and has just won the division’s player of the month award – he scores most of his goals late on because defenders tire, space opens up and he destroys them, also using his pace to devastating effect.
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Fans love him because he works so hard to win the ball back too, scrapping around at opponents’ ankles.
It takes a lot for a loan player to have the same impact at Bolton as James Trafford and Conor Bradley, but Cozier-Duberry’s doing just that – just like those two, he’s got undoubted potential to play in the Premier League eventually with Brighton.
Cozier-Duberry celebrates netting in Japan in July 2024 (Image credit: Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)The Seagulls do have a January recall clause, and there’s been much talk among fans about whether they’ll activate it – Brighton have made positive noises about letting him finish the season at Bolton, though. After all, Louie Barry and Nathan Lowe were on course to win the League One and League Two player of the year awards last season, only to be recalled by their parent clubs in January, before doing the square root of naff all in the second half of the campaign.
Cozier-Duberry seems to be loving life in a team that’s pushing for promotion in front of adoring crowds of more than 20,000 – right now, he’s in the perfect place for his development.
Chris joined FourFourTwo in 2015 and has reported from more than 20 countries, in places as varied as Ivory Coast and the Arctic Circle. He’s interviewed Pele, Zlatan and Santa Claus (it’s a long story), as well as covering the World Cup, AFCON and the Clasico. He previously spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist, and completed the 92 in 2017.
