SPANISH goal-getter Adrian Colunga fell foul of managerial upheaval at Brighton after fulfilling his ambition to play English football.
The diminutive striker played for 15 different Spanish clubs with his most successful spell being 17 goals in 82 appearances over four years for Getafe.
It was from the Madrid side that Colunga joined the Seagulls in the early days of Sami Hyypia’s brief reign in charge but he didn’t fit the bill for successor Chris Hughton.
That said, he couldn’t have got off to a better start in Albion colours, playing a part in three of their four goals in a 4-2 second round League Cup win after extra time at Swindon.
Only 10 minutes in, Colunga’s perfectly weighted pass set up Rohan Ince who smashed home a stunning 20-yard volley. Colunga himself got a goal on his debut, guiding in from three yards an Adam Chicksen cross on 96 minutes. And three minutes later the Spaniard won a penalty which Jake Forster-Caskey scored from.
Forster-Caskey added a second penalty in the dying seconds after he’d been brought down by Nathan Thompson, who was sent off. Ex-Albion midfielder Yaser Kasim and Louis Thompson scored for Swindon.
Colunga had only just arrived at the club and drew praise from boss Hyypia, who said: “He did well. It was very difficult for him as we only got international clearance at the last minute for him at the team meeting before the game.
“When a striker scores a goal, it is good as it gives them confidence. It was difficult to communicate with him because he doesn’t speak English, but I can probably say ‘well done’ (bien hecho) in Spanish.”
Curiously, Colunga didn’t score any of his four Albion goals at the Amex. His first league goal came in a 3-2 defeat away to Bournemouth, stroking home an excellent Joao Teixeira through ball for Albion’s first equaliser in the game (a Gordon Greer own goal had given the home side the lead).
Marc Pugh’s volley was deflected past stand-in ‘keeper Ali Al-Habsi to give the Cherries the lead but Sam Baldock restored parity. Bournemouth edged it 3-2 when Lewis Dunk brought down Callum Wilson and substitute Yann Kermorgant made no mistake from the spot.
I was in attendance to see Colunga’s other two goals which were both penalties. The first of those was in a 3-3 draw at Norwich.
Albion were getting a habit of drawing in that first half of the 2014-15 season, they’d got nine in 18 games when they headed to Carrow Road on 22 November. Full-back Bruno opened the scoring with his head from a Colunga cross.
The Canaries equalised through Johnny Howson then went ahead through skipper Russell Martin’s thundering 30-yarder. Kazenga LuaLua equalised with a curler into the top corner from inside the box.
Jos Hooiveld fouled Colunga inside the box and the Spaniard converted the spot kick to put the visitors ahead. Alas, City’s Gary Hooper pounced on a loose ball inside the box on 85 minutes and smashed in a third for the home side.
The Argus reckoned Colunga’s best performance for the Albion came in one of Hyypia’s last games in charge on 29 November 2014 when playing just behind on-loan Darren Bent in a 2-1 defeat at home to Fulham.
Bent opened the scoring on his debut on 52 minutes with a first-time finish after Colunga picked him out. Lasse Vigen Christensen set up Hugo Rodallega for a powerful leveller before clinching it for the visitors with a deflected winner. In added on time, Colunga got himself sent off when he was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Scott Parker.
When Hyypia stepped down just before Christmas 2014, caretaker boss Nathan Jones put his faith in Colunga to lead the line for his two games in charge.
Boxing Day visitors Reading went 2-0 up courtesy of goals from on-loan Glenn Murray but Forster-Caskey pulled one back. Colunga was unlucky with an effort that came off a post but on 90 minutes he delivered a pass from which Inigo Calderon equalised.
In the 2-0 win at Fulham three days later, Colunga had a great chance to put Albion ahead nine minutes into the second half but his shot clipped the outside of a post. He made amends from the spot on the hour after Elliott Bennett was fouled by Kostas Stafylidis. Substitute Solly March sealed the points late on with his first league goal. It was only the second win in 20 matches.
Colunga was a sub for four games under Hughton, and got on twice, replacing Forster-Caskey in a 1-0 home defeat to Brentford on 57 minutes and as an 82nd-minute sub for the same player in the fourth round 3-2 FA Cup defeat to Arsenal at the Amex.
The new boss obviously saw him as surplus to requirements, though, and sanctioned a half-season loan move to Granada in January 2015. Alas, that injury-hindered loan stint did not lead to an expected permanent move.
Born in Oviedo, Spain, on 17 November 1984, Colunga joined the youth ranks of local side Club Deportivo Covadonga. He moved on to Sporting de Gijón but didn’t get beyond their B team, going out on several loans: to Turón, Marino (twice) and Ceares.
It was at Segunda B side Marino that he made his professional debut and he also played for Soledad Paguera (Mallorca), Pájara Playas (Fuerteventura), and UD Las Palmas (Gran Canaria).
The 13 goals he scored for second tier Las Palmas earned him a €2.7m move to top tier Recreativo in Andalusia. In his second season there, after they’d been relegated, he spent the second half of the (2009-10) season on loan to Real Zaragoza back in La Liga.
At the end of the season, he joined Getafe for €2.5m. He was a Getafe player for four seasons, scoring 18 goals in 98 appearances, although he had a 17-game loan spell at old club Sporting Gijon in the second half of the 2011-12 season.
Back at the Azulones (deep blue ones) at the start of the following season, he told Spanish daily sports newspaper Diario AS: “This is going to be the best of my three years here so far. I’m going to train hard and fight to play, because my goal is to play every game.”
He credited head coach Luis García with helping to improve his game and said: “I feel good physically, and this year I’m in top form.
“You always learn from every coach, but from Luis Garcia I’ve learned things that I took for granted before.”
Interviewed before Getafe took on Barcelona, Colunga boldly declared: “We can beat anyone. Normally we would lose against the first or second best team in the world.
“But we have a great squad, and they have a style of play that we know how to read. It is going to be very difficult because they have great players and great quality, but we can win.”
They lost 4-1. Lionel Messi scored twice (one a penalty) and Colunga was subbed off on the hour.
Although Colunga was involved in Albion’s pre-season games ahead of the 2015-16 season, he didn’t get a look-in when the season proper began. Brighton had welcomed back former goalscoring hero Bobby Zamora and Hughton also preferred Tomer Hemed and Baldock up front.
It led to the Albion parting ways with Colunga “by mutual consent” a month after the August transfer window closed, a decision which the player felt aggrieved enough about to talk candidly to The Argus.
The official line from the club had Hughton saying: “Adrian has found his opportunities limited since I came to the club and even more so since the summer. He’s been extremely professional and we wish him well.”
But Colunga told Brian Owen “misunderstandings” between Albion and his agents had led to a wasted half-season. “The biggest loser in all this was me,” he said. “I’ve now got to wait until January before I can join a club. I’m not happy with how things worked out. I wish the club and my agents had done this better.
“Chris Hughton always said I was a good player and trained well so anybody would ask why I didn’t play. My position is incomprehensible really.
“I don’t know what I can do. I believe I could have played for this team and I was perfectly capable of starting for this team.”
Hughton, though, felt Colunga’s style didn’t suit the way he wanted to play. “Adrian was somebody that worked hard in training and was a very good professional and is a player with talent,” said the boss.
“In the system that I played, I think it was hard for him to get into my plans. That’s never a reaction on the player. A player can be elsewhere and do well, it’s just a case of being the right fit. For what I saw, I’ve got others in front of him.”
At the age of 30, Colunga was determined to find a new club in time to resume playing the following January and he told Owen: “I have a lot of football left in me. I feel phenomenally good physically.”
And he added: “Where would I like to play? For a club who want to sign me and who have confidence in me. I will go back to Spain unless something else turns up.”
It was indeed to Spanish football that he returned, joining second tier side RCD Mallorca where he made seven starts plus three appearances off the bench and scored twice.
He then had a season with Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, playing alongside former Albion teammate Inigo Calderon.
In September 2017, he tried his luck with Indian Super League outfit FC Goa. Back in Murcia, Spain, for pre-season friendlies that autumn, Colunga scored in a 3-0 win over Deportivo Minera and in a 4-2 win over FC Cartagena B.
He scored once, on his competitive debut, in a 5-1 win over Delhi Dynamos, but foreign player restrictions limited his involvement and he left the club towards the end of January 2018 and announced his retirement.
He has since had various coaching stints, initially with youth teams in Mallorca. He spent 15 months on the coaching staff of Slovakian top tier side FC DAC 1904 but returned to Spain to take charge of Murcia’s reserve side before landing the top job in November 2025.
After a six-game winless run culminating in a 2-1 derby defeat to FC Cartagena, he was sacked. But in June 2026 he was appointed head coach of Andulisian side Algeciras.