He has not yet been granted redemption: for the time being, Ricardo Pepi remains a historic transfer flop in the Bundesliga

Shortly after the arrival of “El Tren” – as Pepi was nicknamed in his early days – an absurd quote began circulating on social media: it claimed that Augsburg’s then manager, Markus Weinzierl, had urinated on the American in the shower as a greeting after a training session, as this was simply part of the culture here. FC Augsburg subsequently commented on the alleged quote via social media, dismissing the story with the word "Fake!".

“I just laughed. It was my teammates who showed it to me. They asked, ‘Is that true?’ I simply replied that they must know it couldn’t be true. After all, we hang out together every day,” Pepi later explained his humorous response to this fake news.

It soon became clear: the relationship between the Texas-born player and the Augsburgers was set to become the most costly misunderstanding in the club’s history. Too much pressure, too little experience against physically strong opponents, such as those found in the Bundesliga, and too little goal threat from the former FC Dallas player meant that the “Ricardo hype train” lost momentum rather quickly.

After 16 games for FCA without a goal or an assist, all parties pulled the emergency brake and Pepi was loaned out in the summer of 2022.

Today, almost four years later, there was almost a belated happy ending for the Augsburg side: last week, Pepi was on the verge of a mega-transfer to the Premier League. PSV and Fulham had essentially reached an agreement. A transfer fee of €36 million plus bonuses was set to be paid to Eindhoven. He successfully passed his medical in London.

Background: Following his loan move to FC Groningen in 2022, which earned FCA half a million euros, Pepi increasingly demonstrated the skills he was reputed to possess in the Dutch Eredivisie. “He has an inner drive, a bite and a self-belief to score goals,” Luchi Gonzalez once explained, having previously coached the striker at FC Dallas. “But off the pitch, he comes across as so calm, confident and mature. He supports the team – always. And that’s the beauty of this lad.” The Texan scored 13 goals in 31 games for Groningen, which led to his departure from the Bundesliga and an €11 million move to PSV.

Although Pepi has repeatedly been hampered by injuries, he quickly established himself in Eindhoven, realised his dream of playing in the Champions League and has scored 13 goals (with 2 assists) in 27 matches across all competitions this season. A place in the World Cup on home soil with the USA looks likely – and, indeed, a move to the Premier League shortly afterwards.

But the latter is not going to happen (for now). PSV pulled the plug at the weekend and called off the Pepi transfer just before it was due to be finalised. Whilst Eindhoven and Fulham had agreed on many details, there was no consensus on when to announce the transfer. The Cottagers reportedly wanted to delay the announcement so that they could back out in the event of an injury to the striker.

PSV sporting director Earnest Stewart confirmed on Saturday: “The issue of when responsibility for the player would change hands was a key point. Although we had moved a little closer, we were still too far apart.” Pepi’s compatriot added: “Ricardo really wanted this move. Basically, it’s most frustrating for Ricardo. We’re naturally happy to be keeping a good striker at our club.”

Stewart emphasised that Pepi harbours "no hard feelings" towards the top Dutch club. However, he did not rule out a transfer at a later date: "You should never do that. If a player can make a good move and it’s also good for the club, then we’ll go ahead with it."

A transfer on similar terms would certainly also be in FC Augsburg’s interests. According to Bild, a contractual sell-on clause of 20 per cent of the transfer fee is set to apply as soon as the fee exceeds 11 million euros. This would have meant revenue of over 3.5 million euros for Augsburg, and the centre-forward’s transfers would thus have almost turned into a zero-sum game for FCA.