Cologne (dpa / lnw) – National soccer coach Hansi Flick sees the Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln as a good role model in the fight for lost credit with the fans thanks to his passionate style of play. “Steffen Baumgart and his team managed to get the euphoria back in and take the fans with them,” said Flick: “That can be a good example for us of how to get the fans behind you with exciting football.” Baumgart and his team “do it brilliantly,” said Flick, who also played for FC from 1990 to 1993.
The national coach came back to Cologne on Tuesday to promote, together with his handball counterpart, Alfred Gislason, for the two corresponding European Championships in the coming year, for which the cathedral city will also be the venue. Cologne is an ideal location for this, “because Cologne enjoys partying. That’s the mood that you need and that you can pass on.”
Gislason, who played part of his home games in the Cologne Arena with VfL Gummersbach from 2006 to 2008 and won the Champions League there twice with THW Kiel, made a similar statement. “I know the celebration mentality of the people of Cologne,” said the Icelander on the joint maiden trip of the tram branded for the tournaments, which is to run through Cologne long after 2024: “And what I also got to know here is an extremely positive mood for the sport and handball.”
When asked that he didn’t live in Cologne when he was a professional, but in Weilerswist, about 30 kilometers away, Flick replied with a laugh: “In retrospect, it would probably have been better if I had lived in Cologne. But my neighbor was Pierre Littbarski. We carpooled and it was fun and enjoyable with him.”
