Before the new Bundesliga season 2023/2024, 1. FC Köln is in a major process of upheaval. Deserving players like Jonas Hector, Ellyes Skhiri or Timo Horn will no longer play for Effzeh in the coming season, some newcomers have already been presented instead. The personnel planning in the cathedral city is far from over, promised head coach Steffen Baumgart.
The Cologne coach wants to push the sporting development of the team further in the coming year. After eleventh place in the completed 2022/2023 season, a place in the middle of the table is the club’s minimum goal for the next season.
In order to absorb the heavy losses of regular players Jonas Hector and Ellyes Skhiri, 1. FC Köln brought in two first alternatives in Leart Paqarada (free transfer from FC St. Pauli) and Jacob Christensen (free transfer from FC Nordsjaelland). In addition, as is well known, the former national player Luca Waldschmidt is moving from Wolfsburg to the Rhine on loan.
Baumgart wants to take the next step with 1. FC Köln
But that’s not all: “We’re not finished yet,” promised Cologne’s head coach Steffen Baumgart in the “Sport Bild”. The 51-year-old was convinced that he would take the next step in his third year in Cologne: “We will take another step forward as a team.”
In an interview with the sports magazine, Baumgart formulated footballing goals as wanting to become more flexible in terms of play and more efficient in exploiting opportunities.
The football coach did not want to set a specific goal for the season, but was basically optimistic: “Eight weeks before the start of the season, I’m not making any predictions. What I can say: With Luca Waldschmidt and the return of Mark Uth after his injury, we have additional quality in the offensive.”