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Ricardo Pepi will be playing in Eredivisie next season after agreeing to an $11 million transfer to Dutch giants PSV according to Fabrizio Romano.
Ricardo Pepi to PSV Eindhoven, done deal confirmed — he only wanted PSV as revealed weeks ago ⚪️ #PSV
Understand fee will be €10m already agreed with Augsburg, personal terms also agreed last week.Contract until June 2028.
USMNT striker stays in Eredivisie.
Here we go pic.twitter.com/jjZ7kjyUFG
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 27, 2023
PSV Eindhoven will sign Ricardo Pepi on a five-year deal from Augsburg for $11M, per @FabrizioRomano pic.twitter.com/i9mutLWu5A
— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 27, 2023
His new contract with PSV runs through June 2028.
The American striker was on loan last season in Eredivisie with FC Groningen from Augsburg. Despite the club finishing dead-last in the league and getting relegated, Pepi still had a successful loan spell.
Pepi, who turned 20 this year, scored 13 goals in 31 appearances during his loan which caught the eye of PSV. Pepi scored against PSV in October when Groningen bested them 4-2.
While Pepi had the starting striker job for Groningen, he'll have extremely stiff competition at PSV. Club captain Luuk de Jong has the No. 9 role locked down and finished the 2022-23 season with 18 goals and 10 assists.
The 32-year-old Dutch striker scored eight goals in his last eight Eredivisie games. His contract with PSV runs until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Pepi will likely play a backup role to de Jong. Fábio Silva was the backup No. 9 for PSV last season and still got to see some action. He made 14 league appearances and scored four goals. Silva was on loan with PSV from Wolves last season and his loan spell is up.
USMNT fans should overall be pleased with the move. Pepi wasn’t fitting in with Augsburg so a move back there wouldn’t have been good news.
PSV finished second in the Dutch league last season for the fourth time in the last five seasons. Next season PSV will need to win two qualifying rounds in order to book a spot in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
