Ricardo Pepi seems to be PSV’s first summer acquisition.
Ricardo Pepi seems to be PSV’s first summer acquisition. The people of Eindhoven are well on their way to bringing in the American. A deal with FC Augsburg about the striker, who scored twelve goals as a mercenary at FC Groningen last season, is imminent, sources around both clubs confirm in response to Fabrizio Romano’s reporting on an early agreement.
It seems to turn out to be a transfer fee, which is approaching 10 million euros, with FC Augsburg stipulating a solid resale percentage.
Feyenoord
On Thursday it was reported in Germany that Feyenoord would have made an offer of 10.5 million euros for Pepi and would lead the dance around the talented American international. It is correct that Feyenoord also made a bid, but that was for a significantly lower amount and was submitted some time ago. Now it is PSV that is in pole position to bring in Pepi and hopes to reach an agreement in the short term.
Pepi is seen as one of the great prospects of American football and the future offensive leader of Team USA. PSV technical director Earnest Stewart knows the man from the Texan border town of El Paso well from his previous position as director of football affairs of the American federation. Pepi comes from an immigrant family that settled in America from Mexico and could have played for El Tri, but chose Team USA. Before that, he has now played fifteen international matches, in which he scored seven times.
Mobile
The upcoming PSV striker was trained by MLS club FC Dallas and made his debut four years ago at the age of just 16 in a match against FC Toronto as a substitute for the Texan club. After 59 games for FC Dallas, in which he scored sixteen times, Pepi was sold to Bundesliga club FC Augsburg in January 2022 for 16.3 million euros. In southern Germany, the striker did not score during his first half season, after which the striker was rented out to FC Groningen. Despite the dismal last place and relegation with the Groningen team, Pepi managed to put himself in the spotlight at PSV, which sees him as the striker who must ensure productivity in the coming years. As a mobile number 9, Pepi fits well in the football that the new trainer Peter Bosz wants to play.