Ex-Bundesliga goalkeeper
Georg Koch dies at the age of 54
Updated March 4, 2026 – 6:55 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Ex-Bundesliga goalkeeper Georg Koch is dead after a long illness. He suffered from pancreatic cancer and has now died at the age of 54.
Georg Koch is dead. This was first reported by “Bild”, and his former club, Viktoria Köln, is also mourning Koch. The former goalkeeper was only 54 years old and announced in 2024 that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. He had already received the diagnosis in April 2023. At that time he was predicted to have a life expectancy of six months, but in the end it was almost three years.
After the announcement of his illness, Koch described the moving feedback in an interview with “Bild”: “The outpouring of sympathy was simply overwhelming and I would never have expected it! It was unbelievable, I’ve never experienced anything like it: the battery on my cell phone was empty in no time. The phone literally exploded.”
After his playing career, Koch worked as a goalkeeping coach for many years. He started in Dubai in 2012 and moved to Sonnenhof-Großaspach (2014 to 2015), VfB Oldenburg (2015 to 2016) and FC Wil (2016) to Fortuna Köln (2019 to 2020).
He then moved to Viktoria in Cologne, where he initially worked as a scout in the goalkeeping department and as a goalkeeping coach. From October 2022, he also managed the business as team manager. In May 2023, however, he “temporarily withdrew from football for health and personal reasons,” as the club announced on its homepage at the time.
