1. FC Cologne
Christmas tradition: FC professionals make children’s eyes light up
December 11, 2024 – 8:39 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The football professionals from 1. FC Cologne visited several of the city’s hospitals on Tuesday and made children’s eyes shine.
Seven competitive games in a row without defeat prove that 1. FC Köln is currently stingy with presents. But of course this only applies to the sporting events on the pitch. In addition to the lawn, handing out presents is a pre-Christmas tradition of the billy goats. On Tuesday, the FC women and men visited the university hospital and the hospital in Porz to bring joy to the little patients in particular.
As every year, the football professionals made many children’s eyes shine. At the clinic wards, the players presented numerous gifts such as plush billy goats and fulfilled all requests for autographs and photos. Next Wednesday there will be another traditional visit to the children’s clinic on Amsterdamer Straße.
Goalkeeper Matthias Köbbing had said in the past: “These visits always ground you. They make you realize how grateful you can be when you have a healthy child and don’t have to go through this difficult time.”
Coach Gerhard Struber, himself a father of two, was there for the first time. In the morning he and his team at Geißbockheim began preparations for the last home game of the year, on Sunday afternoon against 1. FC Nürnberg – with the two returning players Luca Waldschmidt (after back problems) and Julian Pauli (after a head injury).
During their visits to the Cologne hospitals in the afternoon, all the coaches and players agreed that there are much more important things than football. As usual, the FC professionals were accompanied in the clinics by the club’s own foundation. Last week they had already organized a Christmas dinner for around 200 homeless people in a brewery. This is also a pre-Christmas tradition.