Newly promoted Birmingham City have agreed on a deal that will see winger Demarai Gray return to the club, nine years after he left his hometown team.
The 28-year-old, who won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016, has played for Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq for the past two seasons, having moved there from Everton in September 2023.
The Jamaican international, who made his debut for the Blues at the age of 17, has now turned down Premier League interest to return to St Andrew’s following their promotion back to the Championship, as reported by EFL Analysis.
Blues make statement signing ahead of second-tier return
Manager Chris Davies guided Birmingham to the League One title in his first season of senior management, breaking the division’s points record with 111, and has now sealed a deal for Gray to return home to his boyhood club.
The winger made his debut in October 2013 and went on to make 78 appearances, scoring eight goals, before being snapped up by top-flight Leicester in January 2016 for a reported fee of £3.7 million.
Still at the age of only 19, he played 12 times in the second half of the 2015/16 season as the Foxes won the Premier League against all odds.
His career then saw him move on to Bayer Leverkusen and Everton before joining many other players in moving to Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2023.
He has only scored five goals in 54 games for Al-Ettifaq but now is set to sign for the promoted Blues, becoming their fourth addition of the summer transfer window following the signings of Phil Neumann, Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Alfons Sampsted.
The deal for the winger is reportedly worth £6 million, although other outlets say that Al-Ettifaq have agreed to let him go for free, albeit with a sell-on clause inserted into the deal.
Will Gray be one of the division’s best players?
After two years playing in the Saudi Pro League, it may be difficult to judge what level of ability Gray will return at in the Championship.
Despite showing moments of ability and flair in the Premier League, he never broke out as one of the division’s best, although his final season at Everton produced his best figures with six goals in 36 games in all competitions.
Therefore, it is likely to assume that he would comfortably be one of the most talented players in the second tier, and top-flight sides clearly thought so given their interest in him.
In the 2024/25 season, he played 24 league games but failed to score, despite having 34 shots and 10 on target.
This poor shot conversion rate is something that has troubled Gray throughout his career, even in his most prolific season at Everton in 2022/23, where he took 57 shots in the league but converted just four of them.
If Gray is to shine for Birmingham, then his decisiveness in front of goals needs to improve, even if he shows he has more technical ability than most opponents.
How strong is Birmingham’s attack?
Gray will join a forward line that outscored every League One opponent last season, hitting the back of the net 84 times in 46 games, and contained two of the division’s top seven scorers in Jay Stansfield and Alfie May.
The Blues mainly used a 4-2-3-1 formation, which would allow Gray to slot into the left-wing position, where Keshi Anderson predominantly featured.
Midfielders Willum Thor Willumson and Kieron Dowell also operated in the three-man attacking midfield, although the latter has since returned to parent club Rangers following his loan spell.
They have recently been linked with former Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi and Wycombe Wanderers striker Richard Kone, as they aim to build one of the Championship’s best frontlines.