When he announced his departure from the DFB in the summer of 2025, it was still a surprise. Wagner had only started the course for the Uefa Pro license six months earlier, which lasts a year. It was therefore expected that the meticulous career planner would only leave the DFB after the 2026 World Cup. Apparently the Augsburg task was so attractive that Wagner felt ready. And for many fans and observers it was clear: Sandro Wagner is the next German coaching talent with a guarantee of success. Especially because he chose Augsburg, a smaller club in the Bundesliga, where the pressure is a little less.
But it didn’t take long before it became clear what Sandro Wagner meant in Augsburg. There were more journalists at his first press conference than ever before. This made him uncomfortable. “Who am I?” Wagner asked the group. He emphasized several times that he wanted to be humble. He hasn’t played a game yet. “It would be stupid if I said that,” he emphasized.
It didn’t take too many games before Wagner finally drew attention to himself with words. After the 2-3 defeat against FC Bayern on matchday 2, he said with conviction: “I don’t see that we have less quality than Bayern.” A statement that not only raised eyebrows among the record champions’ fans. Record national player Lothar Matthäus made it clear on Sky: “These are sentences that are well-intentioned, but FC Bayern plays in a different league than Augsburg, even if the result was pretty close in the end. Wagner doesn’t have to compare himself with Bayern. He has a bit of a wrong perception.”
It wouldn’t be the last time that Wagner attracted attention for things off the pitch. After the home win against Wolfsburg, he made a gesture towards the stands with his hand that was supposed to imitate a talking mouth. Observers perceived this as a reference to the discussions about his future as a coach. When asked about this, Wagner said on DAZN that the topic was “not nice”, but: “I like that kind of thing, a lot of people can talk. It doesn’t affect me.” Referring to the gesture, he added: “It wasn’t anything bad.”