“He thought I was a rat” – Hertha’s Mads Pedersen details bitter Augsburg falling-out with Sandro Wagner

After six years and 120 appearances for FC Augsburg, Mads Pedersen left the club this summer to join 2. Bundesliga side Hertha BSC.

Pedersen’s final season at Augsburg was a frustrating one, with the left-back making just seven appearances. Speaking to Danish outlet Bold.dk, he has now revealed that a serious dispute with then-head coach Sandro Wagner played a major role in his struggles for playing time.

After working his way back from injury, the Danish left-back played the full 90 minutes in a pre-season friendly against Pisa ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

Augsburg were due to face Sunderland in another friendly the following day. Although Pedersen had made it clear that he wasn't in a condition to play, he claims he was told to be on the bench because Wagner wanted to take his projected Bundesliga squad to the game.

Twenty minutes into the match against Sunderland, Pedersen was told to warm up after Dimitrios Giannoulis complained of neck pain. However, the Danish defender told his coach that he felt the risk of suffering another injury was too great.

“I politely told Sandro Wagner that I hoped he was joking. The day before had been my first 90 minutes in a year because of my injuries,” Pedersen told Bold.dk.

“My legs simply weren’t ready to play again, and the risk of getting injured again was far too high. I tried to warm up, but I got a hamstring cramp while attempting a sprint," he added.

“I told Sandro that I couldn’t go on, but he wanted me to come on anyway. ‘That’s not going to happen, the risk is too high,’ I told him.

“He got angry and chose one of the new players, who had also played 90 minutes. He wasn’t even a left-back and only got 20 minutes on the pitch because, funnily enough, he couldn’t play any longer either and was exhausted.”

The incident marked the beginning of a conflict between Pedersen and his coach that would escalate over the following weeks.

“The relationship between Sandro Wagner and me got worse week by week. He took a left-back off during a game but didn’t bring me on, and that’s when there started to be tension within the squad," Pedersen explained.

“Several others went to Sandro to ask why he wasn’t using me, even when the other left-back couldn’t play. He didn’t want to hear it. So he dropped me completely from the matchday squads. I was training well and doing everything I could. I was even getting assists in friendlies.

“It got even crazier because for home games I was sitting up in the stands, and he knew exactly where I was sitting. When the opposition scored, he would sometimes look up at me and tell me to sit there and smile.”
 

“He thought I was a rat”

As results started to go against Augsburg, pressure mounted on Wagner, who, according to Pedersen, indirectly accused him of leaking information to the media.

“It really escalated, and suddenly he thought I was a rat, as he put it. Whenever there was a meeting, he would say there were rats in the dressing room, and there were two players who knew exactly who he was referring to. Because we were the two players who were never in the matchday squad," Pedersen said, adding:

“We couldn’t understand it at all and thought, ‘What the hell are you talking about? We don’t have any contact with the media or anything.’ So I approached Sandro to try to talk about it, and he then claimed that it had nothing to do with me.

“A couple of days went by, and then the other player and I were thrown completely out of the squad. We were removed from the dressing room, told to collect our things and asked to leave. We were sent down to the second team and were no longer allowed to be at the training ground.

“There were lawyers involved for a couple of weeks and everything, and after around four weeks, we agreed that it was probably best for me to return to training.”

After just 12 league games, Wagner was ultimately dismissed as Augsburg head coach in early December 2025.

“The club made Sandro Wagner apologise for what had happened. A week later, he was sacked. He had lost the dressing room. There was no reason for him to be walking around there anymore," Pedersen said.

Following his falling-out with Wagner, the 30-year-old Dane saw no other option but to leave Augsburg last summer.

“It was a disappointing way to end things. I hadn’t imagined that this was how I would leave Augsburg. I had also hoped that we could find a way back, but there were simply some bridges that had been burned," he said.

Pedersen has started each of Hertha's last three games in the 2. Bundesliga.