Official | Mainz pick up slumping Augsburg striker Phillip Tietz on €4m deal | OneFootball

Mainz 05 have officially have officially completed the signing of striker Phillip Tietz from Augsburg. Kicker reports that Tietz’s switch of Bundesliga clubs comes via a €4m transfer fee with an additional €750,000 in bonuses. The deal has been rumored to be in the works for quite some time. Mainz have been openly courting Tietz whilst Augsburg have actively been seeking to offload him.

Last-placed Bundesliga club Mainz urgently require assistance in attack after scoring only 13 league goals through 15 rounds. Augsburg themselves have been in desperate need of a classic center forward this year, but Tietz has only scored one league goal in his ten Bundesliga appearances.

Tietz has scored 16 top flight goals in 78 Bundesliga appearances since joining Augsburg from Darmstadt in the summer of 2023. At his peak, he was considered a €5m-valued forward. 

Why hasn’t Phillip Tietz been performing?

The 27-year-old put up respectable numbers last year, scoring seven goals and collecting three assists in 34 league appearances for the Fuggerstädter. It was nevertheless the case that five of those goals came during the first 13 match-days of the season. It took Tietz three months and 13 more Bundesliga rounds to score again. After a match-winner against Wolfsburg on Matchday 26, Tietz would only score again in the meaningless season finale. 

This year, Tietz and his fellow natural center forward Samuel Essende found themselves squeezed out of former head coach Sandro Wagner’s early season tactical plans. Neither Tietz nor Essende have managed to gain regular playing time and get into some sort of rhythm. Mainz still rate Tietz highly enough to pay well above his estimated market value of €3.5m for him.

Words on Tietz’s switch?

“Phillip Tietz is exactly the reinforcement we were looking for in attack,” Mainz sporting director Nico Bungert noted in a club statement “Phillip is an experienced center forward who is strong in one-on-one situations. With his height of 1.90 meters [6 ft, 3 in], power, and physical presence, he can create scoring opportunities. We are very pleased that we were able to sign him.”

“Phillip wanted a new sporting perspective,” FCA sporting director Benni Weber noted in his own statement. “After several discussions with Philipp, we have reached a solution with Mainz 05 that is reasonable for all parties.” 

“I am very much looking forward to the task here in Mainz and am keen to help the club leave the lower regions of the table as quickly as possible,” Tietz added in his own statement. “The talks with those responsible were really outstanding. The club suits me and my character very well. My whole family, and especially my wife, who comes from the region, are very much looking forward to Mainz.”

GGFN | Peter Weis