🤯 How cheap was that?! The best summer deal no one’s talking about | OneFootball

In Monaco, they must have bitten their nails when FC Augsburg exercised the purchase option for Chrislain Matsima last winter. After all, they had enabled the Fuggerstadt team to make one of the best deals of the summer.

At FCA, the centre-back has made a development that they apparently no longer trusted him to do in the Principality. Although Matsima already had a market value of seven million euros on 'transfermarkt.de' a year ago, Monaco agreed to a loan with a purchase option that could be exercised for five million euros. Already not particularly much for a 22-year-old who played for France's U21.

What a fantastic bargain Augsburg managed to get may have flown under the radar for many Bundesliga fans. The option was exercised when Matsima had just established himself in the defence of the Bavarian Swabians. That didn't make huge headlines. Officially, the transfer only crossed the finish line with the season change between June and July 2025. By that time, Matsima had already increased his market value to 22 million euros. Tendency rising.

Upsurge in Augsburg

In January and March, he was voted "Rookie of the Month" by the DFL, and from the Augsburg defence, where he defends on the right in the three-man chain, he is no longer indispensable. But how can the steep rise be explained? "My teammates have helped me extremely to improve. On and off the pitch," Matsima said to 'kicker' on Wednesday.

In the coming season, he wants to improve himself and new coach Sandro Wagner: "I could score more goals, for example," he thinks. He also wants to "take on more leadership. With the new playing style now, I also want to show that I can adapt."

These are the components he wants to add to his existing qualities, which his former coach Jess Thorup listed in January 2025 as follows: "Speed, heading and duel strength, he's good on the ball."

📸 Sebastian Widmann - 2025 Getty Images

What went wrong in Monaco?

The question remains, why wasn't this recognised in Monaco? "In a club like Monaco, there is always great pressure. There were many coaching changes and I also made mistakes," Matsima tried to explain himself in April 2025 to the 'Augsburger Allgemeine'. But that explanation doesn't quite add up.

Adi Hütter has been in office for two years, before that Philippe Clement was the coach for a year and a half, and Niko Kovač was with the Monegasques for around 18 months. Leaving out Stéphane Nado, who only stepped in for three days between Kovač and Clement and sat on the bench for one game, that corresponds to three coaches in five years. Not exactly what sounds like a chaotic club.

It seems more likely that the respective coaches simply saw other players better and that's even understandable when you look at who's running around in Monaco's central defence. At the time of Matsima's transfer, these were Wilfried Singo (25 million market value), Thilo Kehrer (20 million), Christian Mawissa (15 million) and Mohammed Salisu (12 million). With so much class, it's simply difficult to assert yourself. The transfer fee for Matsima remains surprisingly low, however.

One more year until the top club?

The beneficiary is now Augsburg, who will certainly not make the mistake of letting Matsima go under value. He is still under contract until 2029 and sees himself at FCA for the coming season. "The coach told me that he likes my style of play. He wants to keep me," he said to 'kicker'. "I'm still a young player, in the middle of my development, I still have to improve in certain areas. That's why I think the coming season will be important to take another step."

If he succeeds, his market value will continue to explode, and a move to a top club will follow. Augsburg could really cash in on their mega-bargain. From Monaco's point of view, one can only hope that they at least negotiated a good share of the resale. That would at least alleviate the pain in view of Matsima's development.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 JOE KLAMAR - AFP or licensors