Augsburg ship Cardona back out on loan
Recently returned from a successful loan stint with AS Saint-Etienne in his home country, French forward Irvin Cardona is headed out on loan again. The 27-year-old's German parent club of FC Augsburg have shipped the 27-year-old out to RCD Espanyol Barcelona ahead of the coming season. Cardona will join Bundesliga colleague Alex Kral with the recently promoted La Liga side. Kral was loaned out to the Catalans by 1. FC Union Berlin earlier this week.
Cardona actually excelled with with the French Ligue 2 side last season, helping "Les Verts" achieve promotion back to the top flight with ten goals in 22 competitive appearances. In the process, the heavily-capped French youth international was able to pump his estimated market worth back up to €2.5 million. Despite this, as FCA sporting director Marinko Jurendic made clear in a statement, Cardona still had few playing prospects in the Fuggerstadt.
"After a successful six-month loan to Saint-Étienne, where Irvin played a key role in the club's promotion, he returned to FCA with a lot of confidence," Jurendic noted in a club statement, "However, it has become clear over the course of training camp that the prospect of playing time at FCA is likely to remain slim. The renewed loan offers a very good opportunity to get regular playing time at a club in a top league."
"I'm also convinced that a move to the top flight in Spain is exactly the right step at this point in my career," the player himself added, "I had a successful time at Saint-Étienne, where I played a lot. That's exactly what I'm hoping to achieve with my loan to Espanyol Barcelona."
Cardona made three relief appearances early on in the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign, not featuring in the match-day-squad beyond the seventh round of the campaign. Since joining Augsburg from Stade Brest in the winter of 2023, he's made a total of 13 German top flight appearances. He scored one Bundesliga goal in his second FCA appearance, notching a tally against Bayern on match-day 24 of the 2022/23 campaign.