FC trainer Baumgart: On the way to the "Klopp von Köln"

This soccer game that opened the bleak era of the empty Bundesliga stadiums seems to lie deep in another time.

Back in March 2020, 1. FC Köln played in a derby made up for without an audience in Mönchengladbach and lost 2-1.

Now, 20 months later, the pandemic is raging like never before, but 50,000 people are allowed to come to the bitterest derby that the league currently has to offer this Saturday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).

"We have a full hut, we should look forward to it," says Cologne trainer Steffen Baumgart, who absolutely wants to experience the full emotional impact of this duel. “The sporting rivalry must be felt on the pitch,” says the 49-year-old Rostock who is a master at transforming external emotional forces into fuel for his team. "For me this is the biggest derby I've played so far," he says, and announces: "I think it's nice that I have the feeling: We can win this game."

Unlike before the comparatively small derby against Bayer Leverkusen, Baumgart refrained from provocations in the direction of the opponent.

That was certainly wise, after all, in recent years there have been regular outbreaks of violence around the matches between these clubs.

It will be intense and toxic, and with a win the amazingly strong Cologne team can catch up with the Gladbach team again.

FC have not won the Bundesliga five times recently, but their performance has generally been very good.

Baumgart and Cologne - that seems to be a wonderful fit.

On the pitch where the FC dares to play rousing offensive football, but also beyond the competition, where this coach repeatedly gives interesting impulses for the atmospheric developments.

Without diplomatic etiquette

Baumgart exudes an infectious self-confidence, he has a sense of humor, makes sayings, is very honest and completely fearless. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, for example, he said of teams and coaching colleagues who think more defensively: “If I put a bus in the back and play 0-0 at the end, it's not a great performance for me, that's nothing at all . That has nothing to do with football for me, it's just scared of the opponent, I would like to say that clearly. "

Baumgart takes on the city without diplomatic etiquette because the planned expansion of the club grounds is stalling due to political concerns. And about the decision of the board of directors to part with the sports director Horst Heldt on the day he was still in class, he said: “That surprised me at the time. The club had won the relegation, so you could actually have looked ahead. And then something like that. ”The gentlemen on the executive floor could not have liked such pointed remarks at their address. But most of the fans are enthusiastic about this openness, and Baumgart emphasizes: "So far, nobody has had problems with me in our collaboration."

Christian Keller can look forward to an interesting time with Baumgart, provided that this trainer is still working for Cologne next April. Then Keller takes up his post in Cologne as Heldt's late successor. At Geißbockheim they celebrate this as a coup and a further step towards a stable future. Keller was the mastermind behind the upswing at Jahn Regensburg, which the professor of sports management led from the fourth division to the top of the second division. In October he asked for his contract to be terminated and, after a period of rest, will move to the Rhineland next spring.

In the process of self-renewal, Baumgart is only one piece of the mosaic, especially since the coach knows that he himself is in the position in which most of the changes take place. But that doesn't stop him from dreaming of a permanent, formative role in Cologne: “It's always my wish to help shape”, even if coaches often only “work for a certain amount of time in a club, and it may be shorter than you do wishes that ”.

Baumgart hopes to be one of the exceptions.

To become the “Klopp of Cologne” “would be a nice goal”, he said a long time ago.

A victory over the arch rivals from the Lower Rhine would definitely increase the reputation of this idiosyncratic football teacher, while a defeat would make many people quite angry.

But in contrast to more cautious coaching colleagues, Baumgart feels great sympathy for wild roller coaster rides through the colorful world of football emotions.