FC Augsburg 2025/26 season preview: Transfers, pre-season, predicted lineup & predictions | OneFootball

Augsburg have established themselves as a solid midfield team in the Bundesliga. While Bayern Munich is of course the biggest and best team in Bavaria, Augsburg have been able to build their own legacy in Germany's highest football tier ever since their promotion in 2011 and can even be considered as the 2nd best Bavarian club ahead of 1. FC Nürnberg nowadays.

Their last five league finishes were 13th, 14th, 15th, 11th and 12th - not once were Augsburg in actual danger of going down. That's why die Fuggerstädter are allowing themselves to dream big and aim higher than ever before - they want to cement their place in the top half of the Bundesliga!

The biggest sign of Augsburg's newly found ambition is their change in manager: the highly rated Sandro Wagner succeeds Jess Thorup in the dugout.

The Dane's time at Augsburg ended quite unfortunately, since his team had an amazing run in the second half of the 2024/25 season in the Bundesliga: they've only lost two (!) out of 14 games, against Stuttgart and Bayern.

However, the season's finish was one to forget: four losses and one draw out of the last five games ended any hopes of returning to the European stage next season. This, along with the opportunity to secure the signature of one of Germany's most promising young coaches, meant the end of Thorup's and the beginning of Wagner's chapter in Augsburg.

Transfers:

Augsburg were never in the position to be the biggest spenders in the league; so far, they have spent a total of €14.7 million, while also earning €13.1 million.

Their most notable transfer so far has been the appointment of Sandro Wagner as headcoach. He started his coaching career at Unterhaching, where he coached his team back to the 3. Liga after 81 games (1.96 points per game) in charge.

After that, he took over the role as assistant coach to Julian Nagelsmann for Germany's national team. Wagner is said to be quite close to the players, showing a lot of empathy and understanding. The 37-year-old had early on commented on his wish to take over a Bundesliga club one day - now, this day has come.

“Sandro is very meticulous and can also inspire a team with his emotion”, said Augsburg's CEO Michael Ströll.

Aside from Wagner, Augsburg were able to keep the centre-back duo of Chrislain Matsima (€5m) and Cédric Zesiger (€4m) at the club after their previous loan in 2024/25. Matsima especially has shown great performances in the Augsburg kit and his signature was of highest importance to the Augsburg board.

Han-Noah Massengo (€3m from Burnley) and Elias Saad (€2m) from direct rival St. Pauli are good additions to the midfield and attack respectively. Robin Fellhauer (€700k from Elversberg) and Kyliane Dong (for free from Troyes) strengthen Augsburg's squad depth.

The most notable departures were long-time servers Robert Gumny, Reece Oxford and Fredrik Jensen - all of them left the club for free. Dion Beljo and Felix Uduokhai left the club after their previous loan deals for good.

All in all, the squad has not changed too much - it remains to be seen, if the additions of Massengo and Saad can make a real difference to the team. At the same time, Augsburg have not lost any players of upmost importance - Sandro Wagner's changes in tactics and playing style will certainly make the biggest difference to this Augsburg side.

Pre-season performances:

Three expected wins against Gersthofen (9-0), Memmingen (4-1) and Lustenau (2-0) were a good way for Wagner to get to know his new club. The loss against RW Essen (1-2) came surprisingly, but Augsburg were able to take revenge in their second meeting (4-1).

After an intense training camp in the Austrian Kollerschlag, where they exchanged wins with Crystal Palace (1-3 and 1-0), Augsburg barely got a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Serie A side Pisa.

In the final test before their first competitive match of the season in the first round of the DFB-Pokal against Halle, Augsburg lost at home against Sunderland (0-1).

These friendlies proved that Wagner has not been able to already implement all of his ideas into the side, especially in defense. The new signings have not been able to make their mark just yet, but there are positive things you can take away from all the games:

The youngsters Noahkai Banks and Aiman Dardari have seemingly impressed Wagner and were used in almost every game - Dardari especially proved that he's able to hang with the first team players!

Predicted starting lineup:

3-4-2-1: Dahmen - Matsima, Gouweleeuw, Zesiger - Wolf, Massengo, Jakić, Giannoulis - Kömür, Claude-Maurice - Tietz

Massengo is set to replace Onyeka, who left after his loan deal came to an end last season. Saad could find his way into the first team, but needs a little bit more time to settle in his new club.

The squad is very similar to last season and many changes to this starting lineup would definetly come as a surprise - the players with the biggest chances of stepping into the first eleven are Schlotterbeck, Maier, Essende and Dardari, with the latter leaving a great impression during pre-season.

Claude-Maurice is definetly still the star of the team - every attack runs through him and he provides a great amount of attacking output for this team. In the back, Matsima is without a doubt Augsburg's most important defender.

It's going to be exciting to see, if Wagner, who was a successful Bundesliga striker himself, can get the best out of the strikers at Augsburg: Tietz, Essende and Mounié all need to improve on their output this season in order to bring Augsburg into the top half of the table.

Predictions for the upcoming season:

As stated in the beginning of this article, Augsburg have cemented the status of a “midfield” team in the Bundesliga - but they want to be more than that. Having missed out on the international stage for two years in a row due to a bad finish to the season is very unfortunate.

Getting Sandro Wagner in for Jess Thorup was a brave decision from the Augsburg board, since Wagner has no experience in Germany's highest tier. He has however, worked with Germany's best during his time at the national team and he can improve a young squad, which he proved at Unterhaching - his potential as a coach is huge.

“Our fans can look forward to a team that always gives its all. Otherwise, however, we should keep our expectations low. Our squad is almost unchanged from last year. We need to make sure we settle well into the new structures”, says Wagner ahead of his first year at Augsburg.

Staying in the midfield of the table will be a good result for Augsburg and Wagner in their first year together - and staying between 9th and 13th is the most realistic scenario as well. But don't be too surprised, if Wagner's emotional approach to coaching will spark euphoria and a desire for more among all Augsburg fans!