Jean Hugonet

Jean Hugonet arrived at 1. FC Magdeburg in the summer on a free transfer. At SC Austria Lustenau he had become a key player in the 2021–22 campaign, making 29 league appearances and scoring once as the club won the Austrian 2. Liga title and went up to the Bundesliga.

His path there had not been a straight one. Hugonet came through the Paris FC academy, having joined it in 2017 after spells at Entente du Pays de Limours and CS Brétigny, and signed his first professional contract with the Paris club in 2019. His first-team football amounted to a single Coupe de France appearance before a move to US Saint-Malo in National 2, where he played just one league match before that season was cut short.

At Magdeburg the centre-back kept that same standing, making around seventy appearances in the 2. Bundesliga and adding six or seven goals from the back — a notable return for a defender. Every move of his career, from Saint-Malo through Lustenau to Magdeburg, has been done without a transfer fee changing hands. He has not been capped by France at senior level.