1. FC Köln has found the successor for Steffen Baumgart and hired Timo Schultz as the new head coach. The relegation-threatened Bundesliga team confirmed this on Thursday.
FC did not provide any information about the term of the 46-year-old’s contract. “A big task awaits us in the coming days, weeks and months to ensure we stay in the league,” said Cologne’s sports director Christian Keller.
Schultz bring “the personality and the competence to raise the performance potential of our team”. Schultz resigned “intensive” Work on, “To achieve the necessary results. FC belongs in the Bundesliga. We will manage to stay in the league, I am 100 percent convinced of that.”
Club legend at FC St. Pauli
Schultz has had a particularly close connection with FC St. Pauli throughout his career, where he is considered a club legend and fan favorite. Schultz was under contract with Hamburg as a central midfielder from 2005 until the end of his career in 2012. From 2011 onwards he also gained his first experience as an assistant coach and in the youth sector.
From 2020 onwards, Schultz was primarily responsible for FC St. Pauli, and in two and a half years the team showed highly variable performances. After his release in the winter of 2022, Schultz joined FC Basel last summer, but at the end of September he had to leave the Swiss team because of the unsatisfactory point tally.
Transfer ban weighs on Cologne
Baumgart left FC by mutual consent after two and a half years, the decision was made shortly before Christmas. Before the start of the winter break on January 13th with a home game against 1. FC Heidenheim, Cologne are in second-to-last place in the table.
The club’s situation is also dramatic because a ban was confirmed by the world association FIFA shortly before Christmas. Cologne is not allowed to sign any new players this winter or next summer. The integration of young players is therefore a declared task for the new head coach.
