Tag: Augsburg

U.S. youth international Banks, 17, signs first pro deal with Augsburg

One of the USMNT’s top prospects could make his Bundesliga debut this season

FC Augsburg has announced it has signed defender Noahkai Banks to his first professional contract.

The 17-year-old has signed a three-year deal through 2027, with the option of a further two years.

The German-born defender has represented the U.S. at various youth levels, and made the jump to the U-19 side in the March international window.

Banks is considered one of the top defensive prospects in the American player pool, and could now make his Bundesliga debut in the upcoming season.

“Noahkai is a very talented central defender who we believe can make the jump to the Bundesliga. Last season in particular showed that he can adapt quickly to the next higher category and, thanks to his performances in the U-23s, has earned this step into the professional team squad,” said Augsburg sporting director Marinko Jurendic in a club release.

Banks profiles as a potentially elite center back prospect, with a 6-foot-3 frame and excellent ability on the ball.

Augsburg added that Banks would not participate in this month’s U-20 Concacaf Championship, which will serve as a qualifying tournament for the U-20 World Cup.

The teenager will instead prepare for the upcoming Bundesliga season with Augsburg’s first team, and will travel with the team to a training camp in South Africa.

“I am delighted that I have been given the chance to make it through to the pros. A childhood dream has come true for me and I will do everything I can to be able to play for FCA in the Bundesliga in the future,” added Banks, who has been in Augsburg’s academy for nearly a decade.

[lawrence-related id=77654,57599,77531]

USMNT striker Pepi completes transfer to PSV

The 20-year-old is staying in the Netherlands after a successful loan at Groningen last season

Ricardo Pepi is making his stay in the Netherlands permanent.

After impressing on loan with Groningen last season, the U.S. national team striker has completed a transfer to PSV from German outfit Augsburg.

Pepi will wear the No. 14 at PSV and has signed a five-year contract. ESPN reported last month that the Dutch club will pay $9.8 million for the striker.

“I am incredibly happy and excited to be here,” Pepi told PSV’s website. “I believe this is the right step for my career. PSV is a club with great ambitions, and I share the same desire to win trophies. I am a hardworking player who is willing to put in the dirty work. I prefer to have the ball close to the goal because that’s when I can score goals.”

Pepi’s time at Augsburg was ill-fated from the moment the Bundesliga side paid a club-record fee of $20 million in January 2022 to sign the striker from FC Dallas.

After failing to score in his first half season with Augsburg, Pepi started the 2022-23 season off slowly as well before joining Groningen on loan for the rest of the campaign.

With Groningen, Pepi found his scoring touch once again, netting 12 times in the Eredivisie despite the club’s relegation.

“Ricardo possesses the qualities we look for in an attacker, the qualities of a PSV player,” said the club’s director of football Earnie Stewart, who recently left his position as U.S. Soccer sporting director to take the job with the Dutch power.

“He has proven to be a goalscorer in multiple positions, and he works extremely hard for it. It speaks volumes that he accounted for such a large portion of FC Groningen’s goals.”

Pepi just missed out on the USMNT’s World Cup squad, but has come back into the fold with a bang after the tournament in Qatar.

The 20-year-old has scored four goals in four appearances with the USMNT in 2023, including a goal against Mexico in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinal last month.

[lawrence-related id=17094,22410,22644]

Augsburg willing to listen to offers for USMNT forward Pepi

Pepi has made clear that he wants to leave the German club as soon as possible

Augsburg sporting director Stefan Reuter has said the club is willing to consider “concrete and adequate offers” for unsettled forward Ricardo Pepi.

Pepi and his agent Jaime Garcia recently gave an explosive interview to Voetbal International, airing their grievances with Augsburg and underlining their desire to leave the Bundesliga club.

Augsburg signed the U.S. national team striker for a club-record fee of $20 million in January 2022, but Pepi struggled to find his feet in a half season with the club.

Garcia slammed Augsburg for its treatment of Pepi before it sent the forward on loan to FC Groningen in the Netherlands early this season.

“We appreciate the investment the club has made, but once he came in, it seemed they didn’t know how to handle such an investment,” Pepi’s agent said.

“The manager didn’t speak to him, the director wanted him so badly that he twice did not show up for an appointment with Ricardo that he had scheduled himself. The coach talks about him at a press conference, but does not respond to a message Ricardo sent him for four days. Is that respectful?”

Augsburg responds

Though Pepi has a contract with Augsburg through 2026, Reuter said the club is willing to grant his wish — but only if the right offer arrives.

“Ricardo has a long-term contract with us. With his qualities, he fits in very well with our style of play. The coach also thinks highly of him. Of course I understand what his agent has said,” Reuter told Sky Germany.

“But the facts are clear and there have been no inquiries, let alone offers, for him so far. So a sale is not an issue for us at the moment.

“As always, we would consider concrete and adequate offers. But we will discuss that directly with him and the agent, not through the public.”

Pepi, who has 10 Eredivisie goals this season, has been linked with a move to Dutch powers PSV and Feyenoord, as well as to the Premier League.

[lawrence-related id=17134,17094,17041]

Ricardo Pepi: I don’t want to go back to Augsburg

The USMNT striker is ready to play hardball with his parent club

Ricardo Pepi appears ready to play hardball.

The striker has told his parent club Augsburg that he wants out, despite the fact he has a contract with the Bundesliga side through 2026.

Pepi has put together a standout individual campaign on loan with FC Groningen, scoring 10 league goals for a club that is in serious danger of being relegated from the Eredivisie.

That output stands in stark contrast to his production at Augsburg, which shelled out a club-record fee of $20 million in January 2022 to sign the U.S. international from FC Dallas.

Pepi struggled to adapt after making the move from MLS, and is still looking for his first Augsburg goal after 15 Bundesliga appearances.

With transfer interest growing, Pepi told VI that he is already looking for a new challenge less than 18 months after joining Augsburg.

“For me it is clear: I do not want to go back to Augsburg,” Pepi said. “I have already let the club know that. I have been promised things that have not been fulfilled. Then it is simple: You have to look for another club.”

Pepi’s comments came just one day after Augsburg manager Enrico Maassen said he was pleased with how the 20-year-old’s loan was going, adding that he’s looking forward to having Pepi back next season.

Augsburg sporting director Stefan Reuter was even more explicit in an interview with Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung last week, saying: “We are planning firmly with [Pepi] and have no intention of giving him away. Enrico Maassen rates him very highly.”

Pepi has been recently been linked with a move to Dutch powers Feyenoord and PSV, along with other clubs in Europe.

[lawrence-related id=17061,17041,16250]

Augsburg coach: Pepi’s loan has worked out perfectly

Pepi has 10 league goals with Groningen this season

Augsburg head coach Enrico Maassen said the club’s decision to send Ricardo Pepi on loan to Groningen has worked out perfectly.

Pepi became Augsburg’s club-record signing when he joined in January 2022 for a fee of $20 million, but he failed to score a goal across 15 Bundesliga appearances for the club.

Just a few games into the 2022-23 campaign, Augsburg sent Pepi on a season-long loan to the Eredivisie. The American striker has responded with a standout season for relegation-battling Groningen, scoring 10 league goals in 22 games.

Pepi has been tipped to leave Augsburg on a permanent basis this summer, but while praising the move to send the USMNT forward on loan, Maassen also indicated he was looking forward to having him back at the club.

“The calculation worked out perfectly,” Maassen said. “That was the idea of giving him more playing time in a league that is perhaps not as physically demanding as the Bundesliga, but it still technically good.”

Maassen added: “We are very pleased that his development is going so positively, that he scores a lot of goals and is also in the national team. We look forward to him coming back soon.”

Augsburg sporting director Stefan Reuter echoed Maassen’s comments last week, telling Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung: “We are planning firmly with [Pepi] and have no intention of giving him away. Enrico Maassen rates him very highly.”

Pepi starred for the USMNT in the recent international window, scoring three goals over two wins against Grenada and El Salvador.

[lawrence-related id=16904,16580,16673]

Ricardo Pepi admits he struggled to adapt to life in Germany

“A different country, a different culture and a different competition. It was honestly a lot at the same time”

Ricardo Pepi has opened up on his struggles to adapt to the Bundesliga and life in Germany after his move to Augsburg in January.

Augsburg broke its club record when it shelled out $20 million to sign Pepi from FC Dallas, but the U.S. national team striker endured a difficult spell in Germany.

Pepi failed to register a single goal or assist for Augsburg, and jumped at the chance to move on loan to Dutch side Groningen last month.

For Pepi, moving to a new country where he didn’t speak the language and adjusting to one of the world’s top leagues at age 18 was a lot to handle.

“It was quite a tough time. A different country, a different culture and a different competition. It was honestly a lot at the same time,” Pepi told Voetbal International.

Pepi faced an uphill battle for playing time with Augsburg this season, and believed his adaptation to the European game would be slowed if he couldn’t play regularly.

“My feeling was that I could only adapt to the European way of playing football by playing a lot somewhere,” the 19-year-old said. “That probably wasn’t going to happen in Germany yet.”

Pepi registered his first goal involvement in Europe on his Groningen debut, tallying an assist on Sunday. But he still appears to face long odds for a World Cup berth with the USMNT as his goal drought approaches a full year.

The striker has not given up on a berth on the World Cup roster, however, saying that making the squad for Qatar was another major reason behind his move to the Eredivisie.

“I really want to be there,” Pepi said of the World Cup. “The national team coach has said that it is important that I play a lot.”

Asked what his goal is for the upcoming months and Pepi was clear: “Play a lot and score for FC Groningen and go to the World Cup. That is the plan.”

[listicle id=7136]

Ricardo Pepi to Groningen is a great move. The Augsburg transfer was not.

The Groningen loan may be what Pepi needs, but it also puts his future at Augsburg in doubt

It’s easy to see why Ricardo Pepi’s loan move from Augsburg to Groningen was so desirable for all parties. That is not a good thing.

Yes, he’s only 19. Yes, he’s got a contract with the Bundesliga outfit for four more years. But a club like Augsburg doesn’t spend $20 million on anyone and loan them out within a year unless there is something seriously amiss.

From club-record signing to shipped out nine months later, the Pepi story at Augsburg is off to the worst possible start.

Pepi had plenty of options on the table before he moved to Augsburg. Wolfsburg was his expected destination before he changed his mind at the last minute, while Chelsea and Wolves were also interested. Bayern Munich wanted to sign him as a developmental player, while Ajax was also sniffing around.

It’s easy to say now that Augsburg wasn’t the best place for Pepi to go, but there were plenty of obvious questions at the time of the move, too.

He was in a new league in a new country. He was joining a bad offensive team fighting for relegation midway through the season. And he was 18.

Instant success was always going to be a tall task. But with a $20m price tag, it was also going to be expected.

And make no mistake, Pepi was not brought in as a developmental prospect, he was brought to help Augsburg win right away. Pepi played 30 minutes in his first appearance, then started the next two matches.

He would only start two more games the rest of the way.

Season two starts slow

If Pepi’s first season was understandably tough, season two was expected to be better. After all, he’d have a full preseason under his belt and more experience in Germany overall.

Instead, after five total games and 103 minutes, Pepi is gone until next season.

The swiftness with which Augsburg decided Pepi is still not ready to help the team is alarming, and his stats in Germany so far make for some nightmarish viewing.In 16 games at Augsburg (five starts), he has a total of 1.1 expected goals. He is, of course, still searching for his first actual goal.

That will likely come in the Eredivisie, notoriously a free-scoring league. Groningen’s star forward Jorgen Strand Larsen is joining Celta Vigo, opening up a real need at striker.

If he couldn’t stay in Germany, Pepi could hardly have picked a better landing spot than Groningen. He should get minutes and chances to score, neither of which would have been a guarantee in Germany.

It may be too late for him to salvage a World Cup spot with so many USMNT strikers in form, but it certainly won’t be too late to turn around a career that, one year ago, looked to be heading for the very top.

Whether that will ever happen at Augsburg, though, remains to be seen.

[lawrence-related id=6745,6736,6711]

USMNT striker Ricardo Pepi moves to Groningen on loan

Pepi’s heading to the Eredivisie

With the No. 9 role for the U.S. men’s national team up for grabs, Ricardo Pepi is on the move.

The USMNT striker is leaving Augsburg for a season-long loan with FC Groningen in the Eredivisie. Groningen did not announce further details, but Fabrizio Romano has reported there is no purchase clause involved in the deal.

“(Groningen) is a big club here in the Netherlands,” Pepi told the club’s site. “They’ve developed some great players: Luis Suarez, Virgil van Dijk, Arjen Robben. These are world-class players. I know this is a great club for me, and it’s gonna be a good season.”

“Ricardo is a great talent, who has an international reputation,” said Groningen technical director Mark-Jan Fledderus. “At the beginning of this month his name was mentioned to us and we have already had a conversation with him. Shortly afterwards his situation at Augsburg changed and his arrival seemed no longer an option for us. Until yesterday. We acted very quickly on this and last night Ricardo drove to Groningen to complete his transfer today.”

The move comes at a critical time for Pepi’s USMNT hopes. The competition for potential strikers on Gregg Berhalter’s roster for the World Cup is suddenly fierce, while Pepi’s candidacy has fallen off. Since making the jump from FC Dallas to Augsburg, Pepi hasn’t scored a goal at club level, and his last goal with the national team came back in October of last year.

Even with that drought and the addition of Bosnian striker Ermedin Demirovic as a new starter, Pepi had still appeared in every Augsburg match this season. However, he had clearly become a second-choice option for head coach Enrico Maassen, even with Augsburg generally playing with two strikers. So far this year, Pepi has 107 minutes spread across five appearances in all competitions, and only one start.

In that regard, a move to Groningen and the notoriously free-scoring Eredivisie makes sense. For one thing, Groningen needs the help: they’ve scored five goals in four games this season. It’s also a league where Americans have scored plenty of goals, going back to the days of Michael Bradley at Heerenveen and Jozy Altidore at AZ.

[lawrence-related id=5640,2521]