Augsburg praise new signings after massive home win: “A great bunch in the locker room!”

A total of five personnel changes from the round two league loss against Heidenheim helped Jess Thorup’s FC Augsburg secure their first win of the 2024/25 campaign against FC St. Pauli on Sunday afternoon. In a most encouraging sign for Thorup’s Fuggerstädter, several of the new summer signings were able to make an impact immediately.

Veteran German journeyman Marius Wolf – signed on a free after his Dortmund contract was not renewed this offseason – ended up opening the scoring shortly after the restart. The 29-year-old five-times-capped German international has now scored for five Bundesliga clubs: Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt, Köln, Hertha, and the FCA.

Wolf’s wingback counterpart Dimitrios Giannoulis – also brought in this summer – contributed an impactful performance, as did new signings Samuel Essende, Frank Onyeka, and Yusuf Kabadayi; all of whom managed to get their names on the scoresheet. Nigerian international Onyeka received the bulk of the praise from team and coach. 

“He [Onyeka] only trained twice and was on international duty [with Nigeria],” Thorup raved whilst conducting his post-match interview with German broadcaster DAZN, “Right from the start, he showed us what a good player he is. He’s ready to help the team. That’s what he did today.”

“Maybe the only thing missing in the end is a goal,” Thorup continued, “Even though he had an assist and played very well. Considering it was his first game, it was an outstanding performance.”

“[Onyeka] had a great debut,” goal-scorer Philipp Tietz added, “I think we have a great bunch in the locker room The boys are really firing each other up and the team spirit is top notch.”

“When you look at their faces, you see smiles all round,” Tietz noted further, “It’s good for us to have different cultures and mentalities. Now it’s about building this together and something really big can come of it.”

“These are top new signings, also in terms of character,” FCA attacking midfielder Elvis Rexhbecaj said, “We need this quality. Marius has always proven his qualities and has a lot of Bundesliga experience.”