Wei Xiangxin Signs Five-Year Deal with AJ Auxerre
AJ Auxerre have tied their future, in part, to an 18-year-old from Guangdong.
On Thursday, the Ligue 1 club confirmed the signing of Chinese forward Wei Xiangxin on a five-year deal, a long-term commitment that underlines just how highly they rate the teenager. He will wear the number 49 shirt.
“AJ Auxerre is very proud to announce the arrival of Xiangxin Wei. A great hope of Chinese football, he has signed a five-year contract and will wear number 49,” the club announced in a statement that left no doubt about the scale of their expectations.
This is not a bolt from the blue. Auxerre flagged the move months ago, revealing last November that they had reached an agreement with Chinese Super League side Meizhou Hakka. The plan was clear: once Wei turned 18, he would sign his first professional contract in France. That day has arrived.
For Auxerre, who finished 15th out of 18 in Ligue 1 last season and only just avoided the relegation play-offs, this is a calculated gamble on upside. They need goals. They need energy. They need something different. Wei offers all of that in theory, if not yet in senior numbers.
His international record at youth level jumps off the page: nine goals in 12 under-17 appearances for China between 2024 and 2025. That kind of return, even in age-group football, tends to get European scouts moving. Auxerre moved first and then stayed patient.
They already know what they are getting. Wei spent three weeks on trial with the club last year, long enough for the staff to study his movement, his temperament, his habits on and off the ball. On the back of that, Auxerre pledged to build a long-term training programme tailored to his “characteristics and needs” and spoke openly of helping him chase “higher career goals” in the years ahead.
The raw data from his time at Meizhou Hakka paints a different, more cautious picture. Across two seasons and two different tiers, he scored one goal in 28 appearances. Meizhou were relegated to China League One last November after winning only five of 30 league games, a grim campaign that did few favours to any attacking player trying to shine. Wei did find the net once in this year’s Chinese FA Cup, a small but notable marker in a struggling side.
So Auxerre are not buying a finished product. They are buying potential, movement, instinct — and time. Five years of it.
For Chinese football, the move carries its own weight. A teenager who has already led the line for his country’s under-17s now steps into one of Europe’s top-five leagues, into a club with a long history of nurturing talent. The pathway is brutally demanding, but it is there.
Auxerre, fresh from a season spent glancing nervously over their shoulder, have chosen to look ahead and reach far. Now the question is simple: can Wei Xiangxin turn promise into goals in one of the toughest leagues in the world?
