Bundesliga January 2026 Transfer Primers | 1. FSV Mainz 05 | OneFootball

The next of our 18 Bundesliga transfer primers to be published here on Get German Football News covers FSV Mainz 05. All the way down to the bottom of the table we go to assess the fortunes of what was – aside from their RheinMain neighbors Eintracht Frankfurt – the Bundesliga’s biggest flop. Mainz find themselves almost literally at the same position table and points wise as when Bo Svensson assumed his “rescue operation” in the winter of 2021.

After a two-year-hiatus, Urs Fischer returns to the Bundesliga in an attempt to replicate the success of Svensson and his fellow Dane Bo Henriksen. Can the Carnival Club engineer a third “great escape” in the last five years? One must emphasize that eight points through 15 rounds remains an absolute wretched haul. Svensson nevertheless made history by worming the Rheinhessen out of the 2020/21 mess with less points.

Mainz only had six points through 15 match-days in 2021. Fischer – thanks to two league draws under his watch – has a little more to work with. Fischer’s 2026 gets started with a trip to his old stomping grounds. After squaring off against Union Berlin at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei, Mainz close out the Hin-Runde with a home match against Heidenheim. A tough early season schedule then repeats at the start of the Rück.

1. FSV Mainz 05

Yes, the author got so very much wrong.

Winter Predictions Check, 1. FSV Mainz 05

Predicted Table Position – 10th place 

Actual Table Position – 18th place, 8 points

(1-W, 5-D, 9-L)

(-13 G-Diff)

Initially, the packed schedule associated with the Conference League playoffs didn’t totally kill Mainz’s momentum. A narrow loss against Köln and a draw against Wolfsburg sent Henriksen’s team into the September international break with enough to build on. Losses against Bayern and Dortmund in September were to be expected. The invigorating 1-4 away win over Augsburg (shorthanded no less) was sandwiched in-between the two. Few could have predicted at the time that it would be the last time Mainz would pick up a 2025 win in the Bundesliga.

The toll of the European burden began to take its toll in October, as evidenced by the fact that Mainz (by Henriksen’s own admission) travelled to Hamburg totally unprepared to play Bundesliga football. One “Magical European Evening” in October and another one crowned with the same rhetorics in November were lovely, but couldn’t stop the league losses from piling up. Leverkusen, Stuttgart, Eintracht, and Freiburg all defeated the Bruchwegers during that time. There was nothing much magical about Stuttgart eliminating Mainz at home in the Pokal days after the Bundesliga loss.

The heavy defeat against Freiburg at the end of November left Henriksen in the mood the simply fire himself. Club management obliged. One match under interim trainer Benjamin Hofmann and an epic Stefan Bell rant later, Fischer took the reins. Mainz now attempt to battle back with a typical Urs Fischer “back-seven” featuring unlikely actors like 18-year-old Kacper Potulski closing ranks ahead of (in all seriousness) “career nobody” keeper Daniel Batz. Right then. Unconventional stuff. Fischer and Mainz aim for some sensational stories.

Autumn Transfer Assessment, 1. FSV Mainz 05

Estimated Summer Transfer Balance = +€10.3m

Yikes! Here we encounter the source of most of the ugliness. Benedict Hollerbach seemed a serviceable enough partial replacement for the departed Jonathan Burkardt, but an early season thigh injury left the former Union man unable to find his feet with his new club. Hollerbach returned to action on match-day six and has since picked up a couple of assists in the league and scored his first competitive FSV goal in the UECL. The 24-year-old’s first Bundesliga goal still eludes him. Hollerbach suddenly looks like the 3. Liga striker he was just a few years back.

Bayern loanee Armindo Sieb managed to pick up a little slack with a pair of Bundesliga goals. Nelson Weiper – perhaps still rattled a tad by his pre-season contract dispute – hasn’t notched a league tally at all this year. Henriksen demonstrated little to no idea of how to deploy his countryman William Bøving. The high profile summer addition looks lost at German Bundesliga level. It suddenly makes sense how Mainz were able to acquire the 22-year-old at a price well below his release clause.

The FSV administrative team of Christian Heidel and Nico Bungert somehow let center back Moritz Jenz elude their grasp this offseason even though the Wolfsburg professional wanted to remain with his loan club. Purported replacements Konstantin Schopp and Kasey Bos don’t even feature for the first team. Both defenders wander around in the Pfälzer wilderness with the reserves. Henriksen, and later Fischer, have turned to summer midfield signing Sota Kawasaki to help fill the defensive ranks.

If there is some good news to report, the problems at the back gifted January transfer flop Lennard Maloney a way back into the squad. Kawasaki also works surprisingly well as both a central defender and a wingback. Apropos wingbacks, captain Silvan Widmer fought his way back into prominence in the midst of the current crisis. Fischer’s heavily stacked back-five/back-seven may possess just enough bodies to produce some ultra-boring wins here and there.

Whether or not that can get the club from the eight point barrier to the “35 point safety threshold” remains to be seen. Another spot of good news concerns the fact that Mainz do possess some financial wiggle room thanks to the Burkardt sale. That naturally doesn’t make them fully flush. Mainz gate and marketing revenues aren’t high and Anwar El Ghazi keeps bilking the club coffers.

Mainz have room for maybe one serious signing….that absolutely must hit. 

Dead Weight Ledger and Expiring Contracts, 1. FSV Mainz 05

Shedding the 31-man-roster of dead weight also won’t generate much, if any, revenues. We’ve mostly just prospects to park here. Only young striker Ben Bobzien might help Heidel and Bungert claim some loan fees. Given the problems with the attack, the front office might do better to hang onto Bobzien and hope that Nadiem Amiri’s pre-season prediction about the young prospect comes true. Some of the other prospects, notably Germany U17 World Champion Maxim Dal, might be worth hanging onto as well. 

Many veterans sit on expiring contracts due to the fact that Batz, and Danny da Costa were only given one-year-extensions last spring. Stefan Bell too only extended for a year. Provided the team can avoid relegation, the club should consider offering them new short-term deals. Unfortunately, such matters don’t have priority in the current troublesome situation. Widmer and Maxim Leitsch likely won’t receive new offers. Jae-Sung Lee remains far too valuable to the team presently to try and cash-in on., 

Dead-Weight Ledger = Kasey Bos (LB), Maxim Dal (CB), Niklas Tauer (DM), Daniel Glieber (CM), Ben Bobzien (CF)

Expiring contracts =  Daniel Batz (GK), Maxim Leitsch (CB), Danny da Costa (CB), Stefen Bell (CB), Silvan Widmer (RB), Jae-Sung Lee (ATTM)

Further Needs and Rumored Links, 1. FSV Mainz 05

One hopes the Taiwo Awoniyi links prove founded. Returning the Nottingham Forest striker both to Mainz and Fischer would make quite some story, The Kodai Sano rumors have mostly run dry, as has loose talk of bringing Jenz back or picking up Felix Uduokhai. Mainz management did well during the 2020/21 relegation scare to obtain da Costa and Dominik Kohr (then on loan), as well as brining in current Hamburger SV striker Robert Glatzel. All those January transfers popped.  

January 2024 acquisition Nadiem Amiri saved this club from the last scare.

Can they strike “solid gold” again?

Further Needs = LB, CB, LM, CM, RW, CF

Rumored Links = Felix Uduokhai (CB), Kodai Sano (CM), Mortiz Göttlicher (CM), Gessime Yassine (RW), Taiwo Awoniyi (CF), Prince Owusu (CF)

GGFN | Peter Weis