Bundesliga January 2026 Transfer Primers | FC St. Pauli | OneFootball

The very first of our 18 Bundesliga transfer primers to be published here on Get German Football News will examine one of Germany’s most intriguing clubs; one that also happens to be in a most intriguing position. Hamburg’s FC St. Pauli managed to avoid the fate that befell them the last two times they were promoted to the top flight last year. After two consecutive Bundesliga stays that only lasted one year, the Kiezkicker beat the drop.

Can they avoid the so-called “second-year-curse”? It gets a tad dicey, quite dicier than most of us thought it would be at the beginning of the season. Alexander Blessin’s “Piraten” are – statistically speaking – more off tack than they were at this stage last year. For fans of these particular Hanseatic city-staters, however, there does nevertheless exist plenty of grounds for optimism.

FC St. Pauli

Maybe the check, much like the football, isn’t the prettiest. That may be of little consequence.

Winter Predictions Check, FC St. Pauli

Predicted Table Position – 12th place

Actual Table Position – 16th place, 12 points

(3-W, 3-D, 9-L)

(-13 G-Diff)

Yikes! The author will be the first to admit that some inherent German bias might have been at work here when tipping this popular club to keep above the relegation fray. It was duly noted – when examining St. Pauli’s strong start to the campaign – that an inevitable dip would follow the early-season overachieving. A nine-match league losing streak wasn’t exactly the sort of “dip” envisioned. Neither was a run-of-form in which the “Kiezkicker” would once again embarrassingly fail to score in seven league fixtures. 

With Werder Bremen and Leipzig on the docket before the “Hin-Runde” concludes, it does remain possible that this team can pick up four points before the season reaches its halfway point. Many of the quality new summer additions were slow to get off the mark, but have awakened recently. Alexander Blessin’s team were in a stronger position last season (14th place, 4-W, 14 points -7 G-Diff) at this juncture last season, but squad is also significantly stronger. Club sporting director Andreas Bornemann also heads into the January window with a significant transfer surplus.

Autumn Transfer Assessment, FC St. Pauli

Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = +€2.55 million

Though there have been instances in which his defensive work looked a bit spotty, Japanese midfielder Joel Chima Fujita certainly counts as a “gold star addition”. A shame that Bornemann couldn’t complete the “Samurai Double Pack” by getting Daisuke Yokota over the line as well. Fujita recently redeemed a bad stretch of form by assisting on Dutch striker Martijin Kaars first two goals in FCSP dress. The Hanseaten desperately needed to get Kaars off the mark, just as badly as they needed English speedster Ricky Jade Jones to get his account pried open.

One continues to like the look of “wingback upgrades” Louis Oppie and Arkadiusz Pyrka. The former has brought some of that “Pokal magic” to the Hanseatic city-state from his previous posting at Bielefeld. Pyrka has conclusively settled the debate as to whether Manolis Saliakas should have a claim to a starting spot. Bornemann exigently needs to get Saliakas off the roster as it’s a most unwelcome distraction. Now that USMNT international James Sands is fit again, his reliable presence in midfield practically renders him a summer transfer win even though he came in last January.

Form issues experienced by attackers Mathias Pereira Lage and Andreas Hountondji don’t constitute much cause for concern. The injury problems that led to Hountondji to decline his AFCON call-up may prove a blessing in disguise. That is, of course, if the Burnley loanee doesn’t end up spending the winter break (along with Kaars) rehabbing new injury issues  Uh-oh. Is it too early to see if Johannes Eggestein is interested in coming back?

Dead Weight Ledger and Expiring Contracts, FC St. Pauli

There’s plenty of dead-weight to trim on this 29-man-roster, both in terms of offloading players and parking prospects. As noted above, Saliakas needs to be moved. Most everyone covering the Bundesliga at the time considered the Abdoulie Ceesay transfer from last January to be a genuinely cool acquisition, but it genuinely hasn’t yielded much. Naturally, a team contesting the relegation race has bigger problems than figuring out where to send youngsters to develop, but Jannik Robatsch, Nick Schmidt, and Romeo Aigbekaen should either be given a chance to play or head elsewhere. 

Dead-Weight Ledger = Jannik Robatsch (CB), Manolis Saliakis (RB), Fin Stevens (RB), Erik Ahlstrand (CM), Nick Schmidt (CM), Marwin Schmitz (CM) Romeo Aigbekaen (LW), Abdoulie Ceesay (CF)

As we move onto the expiring contracts, efforts are already underway to cash in on notorious “scripture quoting” English striker Oladapo Afolayan. It pains the author greatly to say it, but it looks to be the case that colorful captain Jackson Irvine’s time with the team may be coming to an ignominious end. Blessin’s attempts to find a use for Irvine tactically have been admirable. The Aussie skipper has still managed little other than to get in the way of everyone else during four of his last five league starts. Sigh. Then we have the matter of this most unwelcome social media scandal. Irvine may be sold. 

As the author notes every year, smaller clubs such as St. Pauli often do not divulge the length of player contracts and their personnel affairs don’t count as sensational enough for tabloid journalists to sleuth after. Along with Afolayan and Irvine, Estonian defender Karol Mets is the only other player to possess a verified expiring deal. There are definitely others, potentially several from the above “Dead Weight Ledger”. Last year’s primer correctly deduced that players like Simon Zoller and Andreas Albers didn’t have long-term deals.

Expiring contracts =  Karol Mets (CB), Oladapo Afolayan (RW), Jackson Irvine (CM)

At present, rumors that Bornemann is preparing to pick up Japanese center Tomoya Ando and offload another central defender (possibly Eric Smith) persist. Not much else churning about in the rumor mills at the moment, but one expects – just like last year – another active January window. The club and its associated brand all for several million in outlays during a typical, and such leveraging remains possible even when management is running a deficit. The millions raked in from Philipp Treu’s sale this summer haven’t been spent yet. In the interest of maintaining the class, they will be here. 

Further Needs = GK, CB, LM, LW, CF

Rumored Links = Tomoya Ando (CB)

GGFN | Peter Weis