“More than deserved”
Fortuna Cologne celebrates promotion – Mayor Burmester congratulates
May 9, 2026 – 4:16 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Fortuna Cologne not only celebrates a home win against Siegen, but also promotion to the 3rd league. Mayor Torsten Burmester is happy for the club.
Fortuna Cologne is back in professional football: With a 2-1 home win against Sportfreunde Siegen on Saturday, the club not only secured the championship in the Regionalliga West, but also secured promotion to the 3rd league. In front of 7,548 spectators in Cologne’s South Stadium, coach Matthias Mink’s team celebrated the end of a seven-year dry spell in the fourth division.
The Cologne team had wasted their first chance of promotion last week: the team lost 2-1 to Paderborn’s second representation. Against Siegen, Fortuna showed morale and turned an early 0-1 deficit. Promotion is now certain: one match day before the end of the season, the team is four points ahead of their pursuers Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and can no longer be pushed out of first place before the last game at Sportfreunde Lotte.
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After changeable years in the regional league, the Südstädter have been at the top of the table since matchday 17 – and have remained unbeaten on home turf this season. Coach Mink played a significant role in the success. The 58-year-old knows the club like the back of his hand: as a player, he played a total of 162 competitive games for the club between 1992 and 1999. In 2007 he returned as a coach and led Fortuna Cologne through the then fifth-tier NRW league until 2011.
Fortuna Cologne: Mayor Burmester congratulates on promotion to the 3rd league
With the rise of Fortuna, Cologne has three clubs in the professional sector, including the Cologne Derby. In addition to Fortuna, Viktoria Köln also plays in the 3rd league, and 1. FC Köln plays in the Bundesliga. “I’m already looking forward to the new season!” Burmester continues. The mayor also posted a video in which he proudly holds a Fortuna Cologne scarf into the camera.
