Fally Mayulu is the First Signing of 2023/24

SK Rapid are pleased to announce the first signing for the upcoming season, as early as the beginning of March. Managing Director of Sport Markus Katzer confirmed a rumour that had been circulating for a few days at his press conference before the Bundesliga clash with Salzburg on Match Day 20: "We have reached an agreement with the young and highly talented striker Fally Mayulu to work together in preparation for the 2023/24 season. He will receive a contract with us for four seasons, i.e. until the summer of 2027. Mayulu is an exciting player with great potential. He has excellent technical skills, is a strong finisher, enormously agile, and he’s also useful as an aerial threat at any time due to his size alone," said Katzer, who added: "We already reached an agreement a few days ago, but out of respect for my colleague Tino Wawra, I didn't want to give official confirmation until after a personal meeting with him."

The 20-year-old Fally Mayulu trained in his native France and joined VfL Wolfsburg's second team in the 2020/21 season from the youth team of RC Lens. The 193cm attacker has been playing in Austria since February 2022 and has since played 33 competitive matches for promotion hopefuls FC Blau Weiß Linz, scoring eleven goals and directly assisting another seven. The future Rapid player had this to say about his upcoming transfer: "I am very happy that I will be able to play for Austria's biggest club from the summer on. At the moment, however, I still want to focus fully on my task in Linz, we still have a big goal in front of us for the coming months."

Tino Wawra, the Linz club's sporting director, says of his attacker's imminent transfer, "Of course we congratulate SK Rapid and Fally Mayulu on this transfer. On the one hand, it's a bit bitter for us that such a player is leaving on a free transfer. On the other hand, however, it is again a reward for our good work in recent years that players of ours repeatedly move to top clubs in Austria. We don't begrudge Fally the move at all, and we also think that he has the potential to help Rapid and can develop into a top player there. Ideally, Fally will still fire us towards the Bundesliga in the spring and then make his next logical step."