Rewe boss Souque probably played the key role in quake

Least coaches and managers

This man supposedly played a key role in Cologne’s quake

Cologne’s negative trend has consequences – coaches and managers had to go. Gerhard Struber might have been able to continue to coach.

Trainer veteran Friedhelm Funkel is said to bring the crisis 1. FC Köln into the first division. The 71-year-old receives a contract until the end of the current season, as the “Effzeh” announced. Coach Gerhard Struber and sports director Christian Keller had to go two game days before the end of the season.

Keller had been in office at FC since April 2022, Struber started the goal of return last summer. The doubts that the Austrian could actually lead the Cologne back to the first division recently increased. The “goats” only scored five points from the past five games, lost the lead and remained in a playful way behind expectations.

On Sunday there was a crisis meeting after the 1-1 against the bottom of Regensburg. According to the “Bild” newspaper, Sportboss Keller defended the work of Struber’s work before President Werner Wolf that the Cologne board was also the majority of the Austrian’s whereabouts. The committees around Rewe boss Lionel Souque, on the other hand, are said to have spoken out against the coach’s whereabouts. The official separation followed on Monday.

According to the report, Souque was particularly the driving force for the quake in the second division club. The 53-year-old has been chairman of the supervisory board at FC and CEO of the Cologne main sponsor Rewe since 2021. Born in the French, he came to the cathedral city in 2009, took on various roles in the club and economic council in the association.

He was even discussed among fans as a possible president. In August last year, he said to the “Geissblog”: “First of all, when people who are very important to FC would be concerned with it. Because when I came to Cologne almost 30 years ago, I was taught very quickly what kind of office is here in the city. In this respect, as a Cologne citizen it would be almost unfair to not be able to imagine it at all.” However, he was happy with his role at Rewe, so he preferred to stay in the background – and now made the directional decision.

Now coaching veteran Friedhelm Funkel is supposed to create the promotion to the Bundesliga. For the 71-year-old, it is already the third commitment as a Cologne coach. In 2003 he had already led the Domstädter to the Bundesliga. In 2021 he saved her from relegation. Overall, Funkel has already risen to the Bundesliga six times – as often as no other coach.

There is no longer a lot of time to get used to it. Already next Friday, Cologne and Funkel will go to the 1st FC Nürnberg (from 6.30 p.m. in the T-Online Live ticker) before the second division ends the season in their own stadium against Kaiserslautern (May 18).