Breaking Down Recent USMNT Transfers: Dike, Pepi, Sands and More

Ricardo Pepi to FC Augsburg

It wasn’t long after the Dike announcement that another deal was reported. On the same Saturday evening, Fabrizio Romano and Chris Smith reported that FC Dallas was nearing a transfer of USMNT striker Ricardo Pepi for a record $20 million fee to FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga. The deal was eventually finalized and became official on January 3rd.

The deal broke Augsburg’s record books, which had its highest previous transfer record at $11.55 million. That’s almost double the previous amount. With so much money invested, the challenge now for Pepi is whether he can help Augsburg avoid relegation and regain its footing in the Bundesliga. That’s one reason why Augsburg brought him there, and Pepi will need to show his worth.

Pepi will likely start for Augsburg given the amount of money the team spent to get him there, but he’s going to face some issues from the get-go. The specific issue was discussed during an episode of the Scuffed Podcast, where the guys mentioned that Augsburg is second to last in the league in terms of touches in the attacking third.

Pepi has shown he can get goals, netting 13 for FC Dallas and 2 for the USMNT in 2021. But, it could be different at Augsburg. He’s going to have to work and learn how to deal with this team issue, all the while trying to solidify his role as the clear favorite as the No. 1 striker for the U.S. Men’s National team. I have no doubt he can figure it out, and it’ll be interesting to see how he does it.