Opposition Check: 1. FC Köln

In the 1997/98 season, 1. FC Köln was relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time. Since their introduction in 1963, the Billy Goats have played in the top German league without interruption; in total, the Cologne team had been top-flight for 49 years in a row. Neither Peter Neururer nor Lorenz-Günther Köstner managed to save FC from relegation for the first time this season. Since then, FC Köln can honestly be described as a yo-yo team, they have been relegated five more times and the Rhinelanders have been able to enjoy promotion to the German football upper house six times. Köln have spent a total of nine seasons in the 2nd Bundesliga, and are now threatening to enter their tenth season. After 29 matchdays, coach Timo Schultz’s team finds itself in 17th place, four points behind the relegation place and five points behind the saving 15th place. The offensive in particular is causing a lot of worry for the fans: with 23 goals of their own, Cologne has the worst attack in the league. But that’s not all. The previous top scorer, Davie Selke (6 goals), will be out until the end of the season due to a broken foot. “In every challenge there is always an opportunity,” is a quote from Cologne managing director Christian Keller. Because there hasn’t been any positive news outside of the football field recently. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed the transfer ban imposed by FIFA in December 2023. Cologne was not allowed to register any new players during the winter transfer period, and the ban still applies to the coming summer period. “We have always said that we have always taken the transfer ban scenario into account and will plan our squad accordingly until the end of the now fixed ban,” said Keller and, looking positively forward, followed up with the same quote: “The following applies: There is a challenge in every game always a chance.“

„I would also have liked to have been a national player. Unfortunately, East Frisia was never an independent state. So there was no chance for me,“ said Timo Schultz with a smile in November 2020, at the time as head coach of FC St. Pauli. Schultz played four Bundesliga games for exactly this club in the 2010/11 season. The now 46-year-old was with the club from Hamburg for a total of 17 years, from 2005 to 2012 as a player and since 2011 also as a coach. But it wasn’t always clear to him that it would definitely work out as a coach. Schultz studied on the advice of his mother: first in Bremen, then in Hamburg, he completed a teaching degree in the areas of sports and history. “I used to always write professional football or sports teacher (as a career aspiration) in those friend books that you always get in kindergarten and stuff like that. And now I have finally become a football teacher. “It’s basically a mixture of both,” said the Lower Saxony native to the fan portal “MillernTon”. After a short stint at FC Basel 2023, Schultz finally took over 1. FC Köln on January 4th of this year. In his first 13 games, the former midfielder gained twelve points with Cologne. His team has achieved the two previous victories at home against Frankfurt (2:0) and Bochum (2:1).

The Köln team is characterised by their play on the wings. FC have already hit 381 crosses in games, which is by far the highest number in the league (Augsburg 313 crosses). Köln was already one of the top teams in this statistic last season, and not much has changed in this offensive style even after the coaching change from Baumgart to Schultz in the winter. When it comes to running time, FC is also in the top third of the league. With 3,434.7 kilometers, the Effzeh are in seventh place in the league-wide comparison. At the end of last season, Cologne was in first place in these statistics.

“The European Championships are a huge goal for me, a dream. Also because I wasn’t there at the last two European Championships. Those were the two biggest disappointments in my career,” said Cologne captain Florian Kainz in an interview with the Kölner Rundschau in July 2023. About nine months later it is clear that Austria, the team of coach Ralf Rangnick, has qualified for the European Championships in Germany will face France, Poland and the Netherlands in the group stage. “For me it is extremely important that Austria makes it to Germany and that I am there. If I then played with the national team in the Köln stadium, the dream would have come true perfectly,” says the 31-year-old confidently. However, it remains to be seen whether the midfielder will make it into the European Championship squad this time; he was once again not in the Austrian squad in the last international round of games.

International games at club level are currently unthinkable for Kainz; for him and his Köln team this season it is solely about staying in the league. Last summer, Kainz was given the honor of taking over the captaincy. After left-back Jonas Hector’s career ended, it was generally clear that Kainz would be given more responsibility. That hasn’t changed despite the change of coach; the Austrian is just as captain under Timo Schultz as he was before under Steffan Baumgart.

The 31-year-old has now played 156 competitive games for FC; Kainz has not appeared more often for any other club. The Graz native came to the local club Sturm Graz at the age of eight, for whom he made his Bundesliga debut in 2010. In 2014 he moved to Austrian rivals Rapid Vienna for two seasons, particularly attracting attention in the second season with seven goals and 19 assists. After two and a half years at Werder Bremen, Kainz came to the Rhine in the winter of 2019. Overall, the midfielder feels comfortable in Germany, as he confirmed in an interview with the Kölner Express. “I have been in Germany since 2016, which is a long time. But I also have to say that I feel very comfortable here. I am very happy here in Köln. However, I have to give up a lot. For example, I only see my nieces every six months. Then sometimes you have the feeling that you are missing something,” says Kainz. This season the Austrian has three goals and four assists in an overall weak Köln offensive. But he will be particularly remembered for his brace on matchday 8, when FC defeated rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 at home in the derby. By the way, those were also the last two goals, and since then Kainz has only been able to register himself on the scoresheet with assists.