Comeback at youth club
As assistant coach: Ex-national player returns to 1. FC Köln
Updated March 27, 2026 – 8:55 a.mReading time: 1 min.
The “Effzeh” strengthens his interim boss’s coaching team with an old acquaintance. He is the only one on the team with Bundesliga experience.
In the fight against relegation from the Bundesliga, 1. FC Köln is bringing a former player back into the coaching team. Because Lukas Sinkiewicz is returning to a former club. The Cologne “Geissblog” and the TV channel Sky report this unanimously. The 40-year-old will therefore complete the coaching team around interim boss René Wagner and assistant Armin Reutershahn and will be on the training pitch for the first time on Friday.
What’s curious is that both Wagner and Reutershahn have no experience as players in the 1st or 2nd Bundesliga. Sinkiewicz, on the other hand, played 76 Bundesliga and 90 second division games. Sinkiewicz played in three international matches for the German national team in 2005.
It is a special return for Sinkiewicz: At the age of ten, the defensive player joined the Cologne youth team. He appeared in 79 competitive games for the first team, was relegated twice, but also managed direct promotion back in 2005. As early as 2023, he sat in with the professional team under then head coach Steffen Baumgart.
The three-time national player last worked as a coach at SV Bergisch Gladbach 09 in the Middle Rhine League from October to December 2024. Before that, he looked after Bonner SC for around nine months. From 2018 to 2022 he worked as an assistant coach at Fortuna Düsseldorf II, and in the 2017/18 season with the Cologne U21.
The “Effzeh” parted ways with head coach Lukas Kwasniok and assistant coach Frank Kaspari on Sunday. Wagner then moved up from assistant coach to interim boss, with Reutershahn only joining at the beginning of the week.
