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1. Fußball-Club Köln, commonly known as simply FC Köln or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia.
FC Köln Youth Development System
FC Köln Academy
The FC Köln Academy promotes and supports the educational and personal training of talented soccer players.
Football is a team sport – and the path from top talent to professional is difficult. That is why the training of young talents at 1. FC Köln is not least about supporting them in their overall development. Oriented towards the values that are given in the association’s guiding culture, we train our young people in such a way that they are not only something special with the ball on their feet.
FC Köln Academy Structure
Networking between schools and competitive sports
The youth work of 1. FC Köln pursues the goal of training talented children and young people and introducing them to the professional squad. In addition, the school or professional career is accompanied and supported parallel to the football training in order to achieve the highest possible educational qualification. The youth department therefore works closely with the “Association of Sports Schools in North Rhine-Westphalia” and with the elite football schools. Good networking should enable athletes to find an individually suitable path in their career. In addition, values are conveyed that are important for football and for professional life (e.g. ability to work in a team, willingness to work).
The contents of the collaboration relate to:
- Opportunities for morning training are made possible by arrangement with the schools.
- School and club cooperate closely with coaches, teachers, school management, parents, players and management.
- Key qualifications in personal development are conveyed in close consultation between both partners.
- The school management enables exemptions for association and DFB assignments or for selection measures.
- Class work may be compared with sporting appointments.
Homework
FC Köln Academy offers the athletes the opportunity to take part in homework supervision through the coach and the sports management. The academy is open daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (also on weekends if required). In addition, the talents receive a sports-friendly lunch and fruit to eat. The special focus is on the individual support of athletes. Everyone involved is aware of the responsibility for promoting young talent.
Association of Sports School NRW
- Apostelgymnasium
- Hildegard-von-Bingen-Gymnasium
- Alfred-Müller-Armack-Berufskolleg (elite school of football)
- Elsa-Brändström-Realschule (elite school of football)
Cooperating partner school:
- Vocational college on Lindenstrasse
FC Köln Academy Boarding School
In the sports boarding school, young, talented athletes find the best conditions for developing their academic and athletic performance.
The offer of the boarding school is aimed at competitive athletes from 1. FC Köln, the Olympiastützpunkt Rheinland and the KEC. The focus is on individual support in school and sporting care. In addition, the young athletes should develop their life skills through cultural and social experiences. Respect and recognition for people and achievements are prerequisites for personal development.
“The special thing about the sports boarding school in Cologne is that the greatest talents from different sports can live together in the boarding school and benefit from and learn from each other,” says managing director Michael Niederig. “The demands on young athletes in everyday life are very diverse. At the sports boarding school in Cologne they get the support they need so that, in addition to a sporting career, they can also master everyday life, school, training and professional development in the best possible way. “
Sports boarding school Cologne
Olympiaweg 50
50933 Cologne
The sports boarding school in Cologne is located in the Müngersdorf sports park between the German Sport University Cologne and the RheinEnergieSTADION.
Contact
Tel .: 0221 99 1948 109
Email: sportinternat@fc-koeln.de
FC Köln Youth Performance Center
The youth performance center of 1. FC Köln has again been certified by the DFL with the highest rating of three stars.
Every three years the talent forges of the Bundesliga clubs are certified by the German Football League DFL. In the current certification, the youth management center of 1. FC Köln was once again awarded the highest possible result of three stars. The NLZ achieved the top rating “excellent level” in all eight dimensions to be assessed. This time, too, there was a bonus star for the permeability between the junior and professional teams. In the current professional squad, Timo Horn, Jonas Hector, Thomas Kessler, Noah Katterbach, Iso Jakobs and Christian Clemens come from their own ranks.
The mission of the youth development team at 1. FC Köln is to find talent of all ages, to engage them and to promote them in terms of sport, school and personal skills.
The aim is to regularly introduce own players to the licensed squad. The common self-image of all trainers and employees is holistic training that is geared towards the individual needs of the individual. Basically, we pursue these goals with the highest possible professionalism and the permanent readiness for further development.
We divide our training into the basic area (U8–U11), the advanced area (U12–U14), the performance area (U15–U17) and the transition area (U19–U21). The U21 plays a specific role – both as the last development stage in the training of young people and as part of the licensing area to which it is formally subordinate.
Based on the conviction that the personality and the competence of the coach are decisive factors, both in the recruitment and in the targeted further development of top players, 1. FC Köln strives to win over or to develop yourself.
The best talents in the catchment area are to be identified through professional, clearly structured, precisely defined criteria and always adapted to the conditions of the club.
The close cooperation with partner schools enables an increase in the scope of training while at the same time coping with growing school requirements.
In the sports boarding school in Cologne and in cooperation with the elite school of football and the network system of sports-oriented schools, talented young players find the best possible conditions to combine competitive sports and school in a comprehensive concept.
1. FC Köln supports clubs in the local and regional environment with regard to their training quality and attractiveness through cooperation and is supported by them in the areas of scouting and recruiting.
The focus of our actions here, as in the entire club, is the unique dedication to football and the FC experience.
FC Köln Training Overview
The training work of the 1. FC Köln performance center is conceptual and systematic and is based on the latest findings in sports science.
In up to seven units per week, the players are professionally trained in the areas of technique, tactics, coordination, stamina and personality (social behavior and attitude) and supported in their development. A high level of willingness to learn and commitment as well as a strong ability to work in a team are required for each individual. Strengths are highlighted and developed further, weaknesses are reduced. 1. FC Köln players should develop self-confidence and the ability to criticize, a sense of responsibility and the will to win, as well as a strong identification with 1. FC Köln.
In addition, the promotion of creativity, willingness to take risks, independence and dealing with setbacks belong to the essential aspects of the daily training work in the youth performance center of 1. FC Köln.
FC Köln Academy Recruitment & Trials
1. FC Köln organizes trial training units and talent days, for which young football enthusiasts can register free of charge. After a successful application you have to bring sports equipment and the training approval of the current club to the talent day.
Unfortunately, no talent day is currently planned. Please come back while we monitor this club or click here for the latest updates regarding Talent Days or click here for the latest academy news.
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FC Köln History
The club’s nickname Die Geißböcke (The Billy Goats) refers to the club’s mascot, a male goat named Hennes after the veteran FC player and later manager Hennes Weisweiler. The first Hennes was donated by a circus entrepreneur as a Cologne carnival joke. The current mascot is Hennes IX as of 1 August 2019 after Hennes VIII was retired by the club due to old age.
Another nickname for the club, more common locally due to its ambiguity, is FC (often written as Effzeh), a common German abbreviation for football clubs. Characteristic for the dialect spoken around Cologne, this is pronounced “EF-tsay”, in contrast to the Standard German pronunciation of the abbreviation where the second syllable is emphasized. Köln play at home in white and red, both colors having been used as the main shirt color throughout its history. The club has long-standing rivalries with nearby clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach, Fortuna Düsseldorf, and Bayer Leverkusen.
Stadium
The RheinEnergieStadion is a German football stadium in Cologne. It was built on the site of the two previous Müngersdorfer stadiums. It is the home of the local Bundesliga team, 1. FC Köln. The stadium was one of five stadiums hosting both the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup, and hosted the 2020 UEFA Europa League Final behind closed doors. Local energy company RheinEnergie AG currently holds the naming rights to the stadium, hence they will be known as the Stadion Köln for the final.
The capacity is about 50,000 people during club matches and 45,965 for international games, when terracing is not allowed. The entire field is lit with a floodlight system. In the north grandstand there is a museum dedicated to 1. FC Köln.
