Magdeburg are preparing for their fifth successive season in 2. Bundesliga.
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If 2024/25 was the best campaign in 1. FC Magdeburg’s history since the fall of the Berlin Wall, last season can be considered a reality check. Following a rollercoaster time, a strong end to the season extended the club’s longest spell at 2. Bundesliga.
How was their 2025/26?
Petrik Sander and Pascal Ibold played big roles in Magdeburg’s change of fortunes. When Markus Fiedler was relieved of his duties after matchday 8, they were sitting bottom of the standings with only three points. After they replaced him with the unlikely duo as a temporary measure, Magdeburg collected more points (4) in the first two outings.
A strong end to Hinrunde revived their hopes of survival as they earned 10 points from their last four games of 2025. They also started the new year with a big win at Braunschweig before things started to turn difficult once again.
However, Mateusz Żukowski’s rise to stardom helped to turn the tables one more time. The Polish striker ended the season with 17 goals in only 21 appearances as he narrowly missed out on finishing top-scorer despite having to wait until matchday 13 for his 2. Bundesliga debut due to an injury.
Five wins from their last seven games put them in a favorable position to avoid the drop on the final matchday as a home defeat to Kaiserslautern didn’t ruin the party in the end. Despite spending more than half of the season in the relegation zone, Magdeburg ended the campaign in 14th place.
The Coach
The 65-year-old Petrik Sander worked with the youth teams of Magdeburg for five years before taking the role initially as an interim coach. With Christian Titz’s sensational fifth-placed finish fresh in the memory, the club had to act quicker after the false start under the former Hoffenheim II and Stuttgart II coach Fiedler.
Sander helped Energie Cottbus to a Bundesliga promotion two decades ago, and he finished in a respectable 13th place in his debut top-flight season. However, poor results in subsequent jobs at VfR Aalen and TuS Koblenz denied him another opportunity at this level until he built himself up with Magdeburg.
The former striker last started a season as a head coach in one of the top three divisions back in 2010/11. The twist is that Sander is sharing the burden with Pascal Ibold, who is also listed as head coach on the club’s website.
The former RB Leipzig man has also been at the club since 2018 in several roles. While Sander is by far the oldest coach in the division, none of the other 17 clubs have younger bosses than the 36-year-old Ibold. Magdeburg’s formula of blending experience with youth saved them last season.
Transfers
More than incoming transfers, Magdeburg’s main focus has been extending the contracts of key players. In particular, against all odds, they managed to tie Żukowski to a deal until 2029. The 24-year-old arrived at the club as a full-back, but his staggering form in front of goal in 2026 had several Bundesliga clubs on alert.
Meanwhile, assist-maker Barış Atik also agreed to commit his future to the club that gave him a second chance when he spent months without a club six years ago. Similarly, the captain Dominik Reimann and center-back Tobias Müller signed new deals weeks before the opening game of the season.
They still had to deal with departures of regular starters from every department, though. Danish Center-back Marcus Mathisen joined relegated St. Pauli, while defensive midfielder Silas Gnaka signed for Belarusian champions Maxline Vitebsk.
However, the biggest miss could be the return of Laurin Ulrich to his parent club Stuttgart. Magdeburg fans are still dreaming of signing the player on a permanent transfer after he only missed one game during his highly productive loan spell.
“Laurin Ulrich is and will remain an issue. There is nothing more to say about it at the moment,” said Magdeburg’s sporting director Peer Jaekel on the first day of August. The attacking midfielder could be integrated into the first team of Stuttgart after taking his good form into pre-season, but he only has a contract until 2027.
Meanwhile, the vastly-experienced Paul Jaeckel and former Irish youth international Anselmo García MacNulty arrived at Avnet-Arena to replace Mathisen and Jean Hugonet, who was reunited with Titz at Hannover as a free agent.
Elsewhere, ex-Borussia Dortmund II midfielder Tony Reitz will hope to take Gnaka’s role, while wingers Emmanuel Iyoha and Moritz-Broni Kwarteng brought plenty of experience at this level.
Former Gladbach midfielder Torben Müsel narrowly missed out on a promotion with RW Essen, but his excellent season saw him return to the 2. Bundesliga for the first time in nine years with a move to Magdeburg. The Blue-Whites also completed the loan signings of South Korean youngsters Do-young Yoon and Chung-hyun Lee.
Pre-season preparations
Magdeburg enjoyed a very successful pre-season as they won each of their first five games before a respectable 1-1 draw with West Ham at Avnet-Arena. Former Stuttgart II and BVB II midfielder Falko Michel canceled Max Kilman’s opener with a late equalizer.
In their penultimate fixture, new signings Iyoha and Jackel scored either side of the half-time break for a 2-0 victory over Bundesliga newcomers SC Paderborn.
Predicted starting lineup
The goalkeeper Reimann will be the captain for the third season running as Atik and Müller are his deputies. MacNulty played a big part during pre-season, while fellow new signing Iyoha will give the team options with his versatility.
Finnish international Luka Hyryläinen hopes to have more playing time than his debut season. Atik and Żukowski will continue to be the focal points of the attack.
Predicted Lineup (4-3-3): Reimann ©; Iyoha, Müller, MacNulty, Bockhorn; Hyryläinen, Müsel, Michel; Atik, Żukowski, Nollenberger
Fixture list
Magdeburg will start their campaign at home against Eintracht Braunschweig before traveling to newly-promoted VfL Osnabrück. Fifth-tier Bahlinger SC are their opponents in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. The 1974 Cup Winners’ Cup winners were eliminated from the domestic cup in the first hurdle in six of the last eight seasons.
Elb-Clásico games against fellow former East German giants Dynamo Dresden will be played on matchday 8 and 25. With their last four games pitting them against Wolfsburg, Nürnberg, Bochum and Heidenheim, it could be very difficult if they once again leave it late.
Expectations & Prediction
As mentioned, the new contracts for the key players would go a long way to create stability in Magdeburg. A top-half finish could be plausible, but the main focus will once again be on avoiding a drop to 3. Liga.