The Data Behind Brighton’s Difference-Maker, Kiko Seike

In the summer of 2024, Brighton & Hove Albion signed Kiko Seike. A relatively unknown player to many in English football, but one with much success in her homeland.

In both the 22/23 and 23/24 seasons, she won the WE League in Japan with Urawa Red Diamonds. In the latter, she was the league’s top scorer with 20 goals, the most that any player has scored in a single season in Japan’s top flight since 2007.

With this in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Seike made an immediate statement in the league, becoming the first player in WSL history to score a hat trick on debut. First impressions matter, and that was an important impression for Seike in a new league.

Brighton’s first season under new manager, Dario Vidosic, saw them finish ‘best of the rest’ in 5th place. Seike was an important cog in the wheel; her 10 goal involvements meant that 29% of Brighton’s goals were either scored or assisted by the Japanese forward.

With a season of experience in England under her belt, the 29-year-old is enjoying a fantastic second season on the south coast and is incredibly important to Brighton’s goalscoring.

Core Numbers

Kiko Seike has surpassed her 6 goals from last season with four games still to play. 7 goals so far means she has scored ⅓ of her team’s goals. She is the only Brighton player who has scored more than 2 goals this season, and she has matched last season’s top scorer at Brighton. With 9 goal involvements, she has either scored or assisted 43% of Brighton’s 21 BWSL goals this season, and at 0.60 per 90, she’s involved in just one goal every other game on average.

Underlying Numbers

Goalscoring

Seike’s 7 goals is the 5th most in the BWSL this season, but that’s not the extent of her contribution. According to Opta Analyst, she has accumulated 5.20 xG, meaning that she has scored 1.80 goals more than an average player would, given the chances she has had. This is a 35% over-performance, which is very high. It’s perhaps unsurprising that her shot conversion (the percentage of shots that are scored) is also very high at 18.9%. Kirsty Hanson (21.4%) is the only player to have taken 35+ shots and have a better conversion rate.

Chance Creation

Although she’s currently Brighton’s primary great scorer, she’s also a fantastic chance creator, especially from open play. So far this season, Seike has created 22 chances from open play, the 8th most in the league and the 2nd most among players outside the top four teams.

The Japanese forward has also registered 3.35 xA (Expected Assists) from open play, according to Opta Analyst. This is the 5th most in the league and can only be topped by players from Arsenal & Manchester City (Hemp, Shaw, Mead, Caldentey), which is certainly good company to be in. Although Seike is over-performing against her xG by 35%, she has only registered 2 assists compared to her xA of 3.35. This demonstrates that the players she is creating chances for are struggling to convert their shots. Excluding Seike, Brighton have scored 14 goals from 17.19 xG, the -3.19 difference is a 19% under-performance. This further shows the reliance Brighton has on Seike.

International Success

Kiko Seike hasn’t just had a great club season, but internationally too. Japan won the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup, beating hosts Australia in the final. Seike scored 4 goals in the tournament from just 162 minutes. That’s more than 2 goals per 90 minutes, an incredibly high rate of scoring. This shows that her goal-scoring ability isn’t just due to her role in Brighton’s system, but that she can be effective in other teams too.

Impact at Brighton

So we know that Seike performs well in several metrics, and that the rest of the Brighton squad doesn’t match her quality of finishing, but we can also delve into her more direct impact on Brighton’s league results.

Brighton currently sit 6th in BWSL with 21 points. However, if you took away Seike’s 7 league goals this season, Brighton would be 4 points worse off. If you also remove her 2 assists, they’d be an additional 2 points worse off. With 6 fewer points, Brighton would be on 15 points and drop down to 10th. They would also only be 5 points from the relegation play-off spot, as Leicester would’ve picked up an extra point for a draw if it wasn’t for Seike’s winner in their MW19 meeting, which Brighton won 1-0.

The only BWSL matches Seike has missed this season were due to her being on international duty at the Asian Cup. Brighton are averaging 1.25 points in games where Seike has finished, compared to 0.5 in the games she missed. Some of the other underlying numbers are also heavily impacted when Seike is unavailable.

At age 29, Seike is at the peak of her powers and an incredibly valuable player. She’s a proven winner at both club and international level, so if Brighton want to continue pushing forward, then Kiko Seike is exactly the kind of player they need in their ranks.