The Köln Sentinel
Market10 Aug 2026
Not going: Luca Waldschmidt stays at Köln
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bellinzona had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Bayern Munich tell Köln: Serge Gnabry is not for sale
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Köln bid $3.3M for Mattes Hansen
The offer went to SC Paderborn this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
Marvin Schwäbe raises the bar for Köln
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Köln heard it as anything else.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Köln go back to the board over Mattes Hansen
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.6M — a club that wants Mattes Hansen enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alessio Castro-Montes signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alessio Castro-Montes commits to Köln for another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Stephan Bauer steps up from the Köln academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stephan Bauer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Benjamin Krämer joins the Köln first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamin Krämer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Ragnar Ache gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
- Squad Köln lose Tobias Stein
- Squad Words exchanged at Köln
- The dugout Saïd El Mala knocks on the manager’s door