Albion had to battle with big clubs to sign Valentin Barco – but their success in South America shows they are ready to compete for the top players.

Brighton’s signing of the young Argentinian winger comes after a period of business in the continent which has seen players such as Julio Enciso, Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo become integral parts of the first team.

Now, technical director David Weir says the club has developed a burgeoning reputation of developing talent from outside of Europe.

He said: “Valentin’s signing is a really good example of us competing at the top end with some bigger, historic clubs.

“By putting our case forward, by being on the ground and being in front of the people to try and explain what our process is, what our idea is and why we think it would be a good idea for Valentin to come here takes time, effort and support from the club to facilitate.

“It reflects well on a lot of aspects of the club that we can go and compete with very big, successful clubs to persuade the player and help them to understand that we could be a good opportunity for them.

“There’s a still long way to go after that. With Valentin, Julio and Facundo previously and Moises and Alexis before that it doesn’t have to happen overnight. It can take time - in some instances such as Simon [Adingra] and Kaoru [Mitoma], there could be a loan in that process as well.

“Recently that’s not been the case. Julio and Facundo have come in and stayed in, but we do have the patience to allow them to adapt, to start to understand the English culture and to understand the Premier League. We also have a degree of patience before making a decision about whether they’re good enough.”

After signing in the January transfer window, Barco made six appearances for the club, playing the full match against Manchester City and Bournemouth after Pervis Estupinan’s season-ending ankle injury.

The 19-year-old also made his senior debut for Argentina in March, following Facundo Buonanotte into the set-up.

He marks the latest in a range of South American signings for Brighton that has brought Premier League success as well as profitable transfers on.

Albion’s success in South America comes despite not having any dedicated scouts on the continent, something Weir says surprises a lot of people.

He said he now wants to continue to build Albion’s transfer reputation to foster further success.

He said: “It’s generally not how we work [having dedicated scouts in South America]. We recruit from all over the world and we’ve done a lot of good business in South America recently.

“It’s not a coincidence, because there are a lot of good players there, but we’ve probably got a good reputation there. I’d imagine we’ve got a good reputation in Japan as well with the recruitment of one player in particular.

“It’s about having an awareness of where the talent is and where the opportunity is and South America is very competitive and very difficult. We have had some good success there, but that’s not to say where the success will be in the future.

“You look recently at [the signings of] Carlos Baleba, Ibrahim Osman and Simon Adingra. That’s a slightly different pathway and we think they’re going to be really good players for us. It's about having that awareness everywhere and understanding what is possible and where the opportunity lies.”

Barco will be in Argentina’s Copa America squad when the defending champions kick of their competition against Canada in Atlanta on June 21.