1. FC Köln is still looking for a center forward on the transfer market. Those responsible could now have found what they were looking for in the Bundesliga.
Ivan Prtajin was actually the ideal solution for the attacking position at 1. FC Köln. But with the takeover of Steffen Baumgart at Prtajin’s club Union Berlin, the Cologne team received a rejection. The former FC coach thinks highly of the center forward and now wants to get his own impression of the player who was hardly taken into account by the Köpenickers in the first half of the season.
Accordingly, the Cologne team is currently looking for an alternative solution – and may have found it with another Bundesliga club. As the “Geissblog” reports, Benedikt Pichler from Holstein Kiel is said to be a serious candidate. The striker is said to be positive about a move to the cathedral city. This fits: On Saturday, the Austrian was surprisingly not in the North German squad for Kiel’s 2-3 defeat at SC Freiburg.
It is also noticeable that Pichler now follows 1. FC Köln on his social channels. In addition, FC coach Gerhard Struber was optimistic at the end of the training camp in Spain that he would soon be able to welcome more new additions to Geißbockheim. “I assume that we can manage this in the next few days,” said the 47-year-old. Now that the deal with Joel Schmied from FC Sion is about to be completed, there could now be movement in the storm.
Like the FC coach, Pichler is a native of Salzburg. The 27-year-old ended up at Austria Vienna in 2019 via SV Gröding and Austria Klagenfurt, where he scored 15 goals and ten assists in 57 games. Two years later, Holstein Kiel transferred one million euros to the “Violettes”. With eight goals and three assists in 22 games, Pichler played a key role in the rise of the “Storks” last season.
The striker has made 14 Bundesliga appearances this season, seven of them from the start. Pichler scored one goal and one assist. Apart from a bruised foot at the beginning of November, the Austrian played in every game. It was all the more surprising that Pichler was completely missing from the squad at the start of the new year on Saturday.
However, Pichler’s request for a change should not have been the reason for not being taken into account. “We can only take 20 players with us, and that’s why I decided on the others,” said Holstein coach Marcel Rapp after the game. And further: “It depends on performance. I didn’t see the performance that he could help us. That’s why he stayed at home.”
However, it is doubtful whether this is the whole truth. The “Salzburger Nachrichten” reports on a “transfer theater”. Accordingly, Pichler’s request to change was the reason for the squad’s departure. According to “Kieler Nachrichten”, Rapp explained in addition to the press conference: “I heard that there was a rumor that Benedikt Pichler had an inquiry. But I don’t know anything about an offer and as a coach I should know that.” However, it cannot be ruled out that the coach will soon hear from Cologne.