Newsblog for 1. FC Cologne
Personnel situation relaxes, but a professional threatens to fall out with a strain
Updated on April 18, 2025 – 3:31 p.m.Reading time: 53 min.
The 1. FC Köln is the football club from the cathedral city. In the New sticker on T-Online you will find all the important messages about the “billy goats”.
Before the game against Prussia Münster, the 1. FC Köln is worried about a commitment from Denis Huseinbasic. The midfielder had had to end the training early on Thursday. As FC coach Gerhard Struber explained on Good Friday, the Bosnian international was a slight strain and could only train individually in the weight room.
For the final training session on Saturday, Huseinbasic should be able to return to the pitch. An assignment is therefore decided at short notice. Meanwhile, Captain Timo Hüber is sure to be through the gastrointestinal infection, Joel Schmied after back problems, and Dejan Ljubicic after his ankle problems. Linton Maina, Jusuf Gazibegovic (both ankles), Luca Kilian (cruciate ligament rupture), Max Finkgräfe (muscle injury), Jacob Christensen (training deficit) and Neo Telle (sick) will be safe.
Thursday, April 17, 2025
The 1. FC Köln continues to hope for an extension of the contract with Dejan Ljubicic and Linton Maina. Now, however, a former coach of the 1st FC Köln could be grown in between. As the “Bild” reports, Steffen Baumgart is said to want to bring Duo to 1. FC Union Berlin in summer. Both had successfully worked together with Baumgart at FC.
It fits that the head of the Union and Ex-FC Managing Director Horst Heldt had already expressed interest in Ljubicic at the beginning of December. However, neither the Austrian nor Maina has made a decision regarding the personal future. Both first want to wait and see whether the 1. FC Köln will create the climb and will play again in the Bundesliga in the coming season. In this case, both Maina and Ljubicic should be able to imagine an extension at the Geißbockheim.
The 1. FC Köln has extended an important contract. The hooked goats announced that DEVK will decorate the jersey as a sleeve sponsor by 2028. The insurance company has been the main partner at FC since 2017 and, according to reports, has previously paid around two million euros per season.
In addition to the main sponsor Rewe and name sponsor RheinEnergie, DEVK is one of the three most important sponsors of the billy goats. The extension should go hand in hand with an increase in the amount of sponsorship, it said on Wednesday from the Geißbockheim. This means that FC has planning security in all important sponsorship areas.
The 1. FC Köln strengthens with Luc Dabrowski. The 19-year-old changes from VfL Bochum to Geißbockheim. So far, the central defender has played the Bochumer in the U19 and is planned for the U21 at FC. Since his contract expires at VfL in summer, no transfer is due for the defense talent.
Dabrowski is the son of the former Bundesliga professional and today’s coach Christoph Dabrowski. The former midfielder ran a total of 273 times in the Bundesliga and played 103 second division games. His son went through the entire youth in Bochum, where Dabrowski senior is a legend with 208 competitive games.
The 1. FC Köln has to pay a juicy punishment to the DFB in four games in four games. A total of 316,400 euros were made. The largest proportion is the pyro show before the cup game against Hertha BSC on December 4, 2024. At that time, several hundred fireworks had been raised in the south curve and numerous beacons had been ignited. For this, the DFB has set a sum of 290,600 euros.
As the DFB reports, the punishment could have been twice as high if the club had not determined two perpetrators. According to the applicable guidelines, this leads to a criminal reduction of 50 percent. In addition, the association threatened to consider further sanctions that go beyond a fine, should “other serious pyro occurrences in the Cologne audience block”.