In training since the start of the season
In January, Cologne native Rijad Smajic made the leap from the U19s to the FC regional league team, around nine months later the 18-year-old central defender received a license player contract with the Bundesliga club. Bosnia’s U19 national player has been training with coach Steffen Baumgart’s professionals since the start of the season and has signed a new working paper that runs until 2025.
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“Riyad has already shown in the pre-season how great his potential is. We see in every training session that he is working hard towards his goal of becoming a professional footballer. He is goal oriented, inquisitive and down to earth. If he keeps at it so consistently in the future, then he can make the breakthrough,” explained Cologne’s managing director Christian Keller.
Smajic, who has contributed one goal in five Regionalliga West games so far this season and was part of the professional squad for the first time on Matchday 5 of the Bundesliga, said: “I’m super happy to have signed my first license player contract with 1. FC Köln to have. I’m happy to stay and keep playing here. It’s my hometown and it’s a huge incentive for me to be able to play in front of this incomparable backdrop at the Rhein-Energie-Stadion one day. I’m still young, so my focus for now is to be patient and work towards it little by little.”
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