“Don’t want to see him for a week”
1. FC Köln is in the middle of the race for European business. But a player does not seem to focus everything on the big goal. Now he knows the consequences.
On Saturday, 1. FC Köln celebrated a certain victory against Bielefeld. Coach Steffen Baumgart’s team won the home game 3-1 and asserted itself in the battle for Europe. A day later, however, there was some unrest. Ondrej Duda’s exclusion from team training became known. The Slovak “put his interests above the concerns of the team and will initially start individually,” it said, details of Duda’s behavior were not known.
Coach Steffen Baumgart went into more detail about the measure in an interview with the Cologne newspapers. “I don’t want to see him for a week and not have him with the team,” Baumgart told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”: “This decision doesn’t just come about, it’s the result of a development. Of course there are always two with things like this perspectives.”
Baumgart added that he didn’t want to “hang the subject too high,” and in an interview with the “Express” he also made it clear: “The door for him isn’t closed for me. I don’t see it that dramatically. Something like that can happen in football .”
A key player of the past season
Duda (27) was not used in the win against Bielefeld. A week earlier in the derby at Borussia Mönchengladbach (3-1), he was only substituted on in the closing stages. Overall, Duda has played 29 times on 31 matchdays and has scored two goals so far.
The Slovak’s contract runs until 2024. Last season, his first at FC, Duda played a key role in the club’s relegation with seven goals and six assists.