Take a bow, Dat Guy. In winning WAB March 2026 Brighton Player of the Month, Danny Welbeck ends a run of three consecutive awards for Ferdi Kadioglu. It was about time somebody else had a chance of glory.
Not that Kadioglu was far away from becoming the first Seagull ever to win four in a row. He was just 2.73 percent behind Welbeck in the voting. A remarkably close top three was rounded off by James Milner a further 3.64 percent after Kadioglu.
Welbeck started March 2026 by scoring what proved to be the winning goal as Brighton beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the Amex.
The Albion came into the meeting with the Tricky Trees having won just twice in their previous 14 Premier League matches.
Getting dragged into the relegation battle was a real possibility and so the Forest game represented a six pointer.
It is testament to the way Fabian Hurzeler and the players have since turned things around that March ended with whispers of Europe replacing talk about the Championship.
Welbeck played a huge role in the 1-0 win over his former club Sunderland. His best performance of the month though was saved for the visit of Liverpool.
Just over 24 hours after Welbeck was overlooked by England for the March 2026 internationals, he bagged a brace as Brighton beat the reigning champions 2-1.
That double took Welbeck onto 12 goals for the season. Making 2025-26 the most prolific campaign of his career with two months still to play. And meaning Harry Kane is the only Englishman with more goals at top flight level than Welbeck this season.
The Three Lions ended up facing Uruguay and Japan without Kane because of a minor injury. England looked toothless in both matches – a fact which has made the case for taking Welbeck to the World Cup even stronger. Get Dat Guy on the plane.
International football also played a big part in an excellent month for Kadioglu. He scored the only goal for Turkey as they beat Romania 1-0 in their World Cup qualification playoff semi final.
Kadioglu then helped his nation keep another clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Kosovo in the playoff final, meaning Turkey return to the World Cup for the first time since 2002.
For Brighton, Kadioglu maintained the form which saw him voted WAB Brighton Player of the Month for March, February and January.
He was excellent defensively and offered a lot going forward. Most notably when delivering the brilliant left wing cross headed back across goal by Diego Gomez for Welbeck to nod in and open the scoring against Liverpool.
As we reach the business end of the campaign and attention turns to who might win Player of the Season, Kadioglu must be one of the leading candidates.
Milner taking third place in the vote is recognition of just how important he has been to the Albion’s turnaround in form.
Through January and February, it felt like the veteran was being gifted cameo appearances from the bench just to break the Premier League appearance record of Gareth Barry.
Nobody can doubt his contribution to the team now. His experience sitting in front of the back four alongside Pascal Gross has made Brighton much tougher to play through, breakdown and therefore subsequently beat.
WeAreBrighton.com March 2026 Brighton Player of the Month – The Results
Danny Welbeck – 30.00%
Ferdi Kadioglu – 27.27%/li>
James Milner – 23.63%
Yankuba Minteh – 12.72%
Diego Gomez – 3.63%
Bart Verbruggen – 2.72%
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