The 1. FC Köln has signed Lukas Kwasniok. The 43-year-old is said to be the key to success in the Bundesliga.
When Lukas Kwasniok followed at SC Paderborn on Steffen Baumgart in the summer of 2021, you noticed at 1. FC Köln. After all, after the successful years with Baumgart, Paderborn wanted to sign a similar trainer. The following four years should show that this had succeeded in the SCP.
Kwasniok had as attractive, similarly offensive, similarly active and similarly emotional football as Baumgart. In addition, he made a name for himself as a sponsor of a young player, showed himself tactically flexible, caught several departures of players and fought with Paderborn for returning to the Bundesliga.
No wonder that numerous Bundesliga clubs and ambitious second division teams are listening in spring when Kwasniok announced his farewell. Stuttgart and Hoffenheim, Bremen, Hanover and Schalke – there are said to have been enough inquiries. In the end, however, Kwasniok chose 1. FC Köln, and 1. FC Köln opted for Kwasniok.
Also because the 43-year-old can have the similarity to Baumgart that FC has been missing from FC since its departure in December 2023. Neither Timo Schultz nor Gerhard Struber fits FC, the city, the energy and emotionality of this club. Anyone who remembered the Baumgart volcano did not feel taken away by their successors.
It worked so many players. In the meantime, the team no longer burned, no longer played attractive football, showed again and again inexplicable trailers and only looked alive again with interim coach Friedhelm Funkel, with great desire for football. Exactly this pleasure should make Kwasniok back into the norm.
Kwasniok is not a Baumgart blueprint. He brings even more. Kwasniok is tactically variable than its famous predecessor, relies even more on young players, is considered a larger developer and more warm in dealing than the sometimes quite gnarled tree gart.
Kwasniok wants to cause a sensation, as he announced in a first statement. This is exactly what many FC fans hope for. The Bundesliga initially only deals with relegation in the Bundesliga. But even under Baumgart it became clear what is possible if the energy within the club, the team and fans are right. The FC is now hoping for this effect this time.