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18 years old, but already worth at least 16 million euros: Augsburg's new attacker Ricardo Pepi
Photo:
Stefan Puchner / picture alliance / dpa
Ricardo Pepi, 18-year-old professional soccer player from the USA and just landed in Germany, is sitting in the back seat of a car that will take him from Munich Airport to Augsburg: he rubs his fingers over the fabric of the jersey that he will wear in the future.
"Wonderful colors," he says of the inconspicuous mixture of gray and white with a green sponsor print, "I can't wait to put on this".
Bundesliga club FC Augsburg captured this scene from Ricardo Pepi's first day on film for its fan TV.
The Bavarian Swabians, who are otherwise not prone to loudspeakers, are making a fuss about the surprising winter newcomer from FC Dallas.
Nobody expected such a transfer.
For the FCA, which is playing in the Bundesliga for the eleventh year, it is the biggest in the club's history.
So far, defender Martin Hinteregger, who has since been sold to Frankfurt and for whom ten million euros were paid, was the record holder.
Ricardo Pepi should cost at least 13 and with expected bonuses 16 to 20 million euros.
If he had been presented these days as expected at VfL Wolfsburg, which is supported by the Volkswagen Group, the Bundesliga would have taken note of it with interest, but nothing more.
But after Ricardo Pepi and his management have changed their minds, the question is: Why does table 15 stand out.
FC Augsburg, whose turnover in the 2020/21 corona year fell from 98 to 80 million euros, is one of the Bundesliga’s financial figures?
Why can Augsburg suddenly show off?
Because it has a new investor, a rich uncle from America?
A circumvention of the 50 + 1 rule?
The US financial investor David Blitzer is the mysterious stranger.
Last spring, a group of FCA Ultras accidentally discovered this name as a new entry in the commercial register at Klaus Hofmann Investors GmbH.
This group holds around 99.4% of the shares in the Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 GmbH & Co. KGaA, the outsourced professional division of the parent club.
Blitzer took over 45 percent of the shares for around 5.5 million euros - making it the largest FCA shareholder.
At first everything ran in secret.
Hofmann, whose name the group of investors bears, is the strong man at FC Augsburg - and the main figure in an unusual club structure.
Coming from the fan scene himself, he is a successful fire protection entrepreneur and has been president of the registered association for the eighth year.
But he's not only that: He once bought shares in the KGaA and is therefore also an investor in the professional department (he holds 30 percent).
Behind Hofmann's dual function and position of power, some in the Bundesliga suspect a circumvention of the 50 + 1 rule, Union President Dirk Zingler called Augsburg "worse than Leipzig".
However, Hofmann does not violate the statutes of the 50 + 1 rule.
Nevertheless, there was always criticism - also from the own fan scene.
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The classic strong man at FC Augsburg: President Klaus Hofmann
Photo: DPA
At the annual general meeting of FC Augsburg in October 2021, Hofmann was busy reassuring the critics from his own camp. He said that three of the previous shareholders in his GmbH, among them the Franz Beckenbauer manager Marcus Höfl, wanted to sell their shares "and I brought the sellers together with David". Hofmann is interested in US sports, often travels to the States for work, and was therefore known to David Blitzer.
Blitzer, which they call "Blitz", is a recognized financial investor.
The 52-year-old manages $ 34 billion in his main job at Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm.
He invests in sports with his own fortune.
He holds stakes in the New Jersey Devils (ice hockey) and Philadelphia 76ers (basketball), in European football he is involved in Crystal Palace (England) and Waaland-Beveren (Belgium).
So far, he is not known for quickly selling holdings.
In Augsburg, Blitzer is mainly toying with the increase in the value of its shares through global marketing.
"The leagues are internationalizing, which is good for all clubs," Blitzer told manager magazin in November.
He wants "Augsburg to play along for Europe."
However, he has no influence on the operational business.
Hofmann has full control.
"If he wants to call me - fine," said Blitzer.
Hofmann calls Blitzer's entry into Augsburg a »super positive step.
With David, we are more robustly positioned in the event of a crisis. «President Hofmann looks back on the period of uncertainty caused by the corona pandemic» without income, but with running costs of five to six million euros per month «.
Blitzer is a godsend: He doesn't ask for a say.
“The decisions in Investors GmbH”, says Hofmann, “are still made by myself”.
What is also the problem for some club members, however: The annual general meeting was accompanied by critical tones, Mario Raffaele, a fan who ran in vain for a position on the supervisory board, reprimanded "one-way communication and decisions top down".
The investor as a confidence-building measure
After the transfer of Ricardo Pepi, FC Augsburg mainly faced communicative tasks.
He does not want to be perceived as an externally controlled investor club.
"David Blitzer has nothing to do operationally with Pepi's commitment," says sports director Stefan Reuter, but admits that it was trust-building that one could refer to Blitzer's partnership in FC Augsburg during the negotiations.
You want to manage the transfer from your own resources.
In the summer, the sales of Marco Richter (Hertha BSC) and Kevin Danso (RC Lens), who come from their own offspring, poured over twelve million euros into the cash register, in the years before that one had Philipp Max (Eindhoven), Hinteregger (Frankfurt) and Jonathan Schmid (Freiburg) can turn into money. In the corona crisis, the club was able to forego sending its employees on short-time work, "and our equity has not given way - otherwise only FC Bayern and Freiburg can claim that," said Hofmann. The FCA even had four million euros left over, which it is investing in the construction of a day-care center as part of a sustainability project.
Is Augsburg ultimately a winner of the crisis, which is now taking advantage of the fact that the money is currently not easily in the pockets of competitors? Will Ricardo Pepi, who has a good reputation among experts with three goals and three assists in seven international matches for the USA and 13 goals in Major League Soccer and the award as the best U22 player, resold well before the contract expires in 2026 - or will he? FCA to move up with him in the hierarchy of the Bundesliga from the lower to the upper middle class?
First of all, it is about the sporting value of the acquisition from Dallas.
Although FC Augsburg employs four center forwards (Florian Niederlechner, Alfred Finnbogason, Andi Zeqiri, Sergio Cordova), he only scores one goal per game and is in a relegation battle.
Coach Markus Weinzierl did not find a viable solution for the entire first half of the season.
With Ricardo Pepi that should now change.
He says he has already learned a first German word: "Tor."
