Newsblog for 1. FC Cologne
World Cup chance for FC strikers: Star coach lets Downs watch
Updated on February 25, 2025 – 4:36 p.m.Reading time: 27 min.
The 1. FC Köln is the football club from the cathedral city. In the New sticker on T-Online you will find all the important messages about the “billy goats”.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Damion Downs can make chances of participating in the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA. On Sunday, Miguel D’Agostino attended the assistant of the American national coach Mauricio Pochettino the home game of 1. FC Köln against Fortuna Düsseldorf (1-1) to watch the striker.
On Monday, D’Agostino stayed at the Geißbockheim to exchange ideas with Downs and FC coach Gerhard Struber. The 20-year-old German-American stands after nine goals in this second division season in a 60-member preliminary US squad for the international matches in March. However, the contingent must still be reduced to 23 players. So far, Downs played for the U20 of the German Football Association.
The 1. FC Köln published a special jersey on Monday-but not for the carnival session, but for the highlight game of the FC women on March 9 in the RheinEnergieStadion against FC Bayern Munich. The billy goats took the duel as an opportunity to design their own special jersey for the first time in FC history of the women’s team.
“For the first time with our partner Hummel, we offer a limited jersey for our FC women. This shows the growing importance of women’s football at FC,” said Managing Director Philipp Türoff. With roses on the jersey and under the motto “Müngersdorf blooms on”, the FC women want to stand up to Bayern in two weeks.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
On Friday, Gerhard Struber announced that Tim Lemperle will fail until March – but on Saturday the striker finally returned to the training ground. Lemperle completed a rehabilitation unit together with Eric Martel and Jacob Christensen.
His return to the lawn means an important step towards returning to team training that could follow next week. The 23-year-old has already missed seven competitive games due to a muscle injury, suffered from the away win in Regensburg on December 8th. Two more could be added.
Friday, February 21, 2025
The 1. FC Köln can fall back on Damion Downs and Learst Pacarada in the derby against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Sunday. This was confirmed by coach Gerhard Struber on Friday. “Except for Tim Lemperle, Julian Pauli and the long -term injuries, all players today stood on the pitch and showed themselves from a good and concentrated side.”
While Eric Martel is also making great progress and could possibly celebrate his comeback at Karlsruher SC in a week, Lemperles’ return remains open. “With Tim’s return to the square, it has been shown that it takes longer,” said Struber. The striker will probably miss at least two FC games before he could return to Ulm in March.
Friday, February 21, 2025
When the Rhine derby against Düsseldorf is kicked off on Sunday at 1.30 p.m., one focus is particularly on one: Klaus Allofs. For the first time, the Fortuna icon returns to the stadium as a Düsseldorf manager, in which he once shone as a striker. The 68-year-old has an impressive balance: he completed 220 competitive games for both clubs in the 1970s and 1980s-first for Fortuna (97 goals), then for FC (120 goals).
In front of the explosive summit around the top of the table of the 2nd league, the Fortuna manager expresses a clear wish compared to the “Bild”: “It should stay calm between the fans! Allofs knows about the special rivalry: “The folklore stays between Cologne and Düsseldorf. That is part of it. You can piss yourself. But on a sporty level and with fair play. But the other should be accepted. You don’t have to like it .. . “