Chrislain Matsima wins January's Rookie of the Month award
Finished ahead of Olise and Koulierakis
First Team
07.02.2025, 18:00
Chrislain Matsima has won the Bundesliga's Rookie of the Month award for January! The 22-year-old finished ahead of Michael Olise (FC Bayern) and Konstantinos Koulierakis (VfL Wolfsburg) in the voting for the award.
Each month, the Deutsche Fußball-Liga (DFL) nominates a selection of players for both its Player and Rookie of the Month awards. In order to meet the criteria for the rookie award, a player must be no older than 23 at the start of the season and cannot have featured for more than 450 minutes prior to the current Bundesliga campaign. In addition to the votes tallied from clubs and experts, fans can also play a part in determining the Rookie of the Month.
Strong performances in January
Matsima started every Bundesliga match for FCA in January, with his side emerging victorious on each occasion. He scored his first goal for the Függestädter during the 2-1 win at home against Heidenheim, putting FCA 1-0 up at the time.
The 1.93m tall defender has also been able to impress in defence, winning an impressive 70% of his challenges in January (fourth-most in the Bundesliga in this timeframe). He also won 83% of the aerial duels he contested last month. Matsima featured for a total of 345 minutes in January, and did not commit a single foul during his time on the pitch.
