Newly promoted Bundesliga outfit 1. FC Köln have tapped keeper Marvin Schwäbe to serve as the squad’s new captain. Schwäbe inherits the armband from central defender Timo Hübers, who was only just handed the captaincy by head coach Gerhard Struber ahead of last season’s 2. Bundesliga campaign. Newly re-acquired back-up keeper Ron-Robert Zieler – who will also start in the Pokal this weekend – has been named vice captain.
With keeper captains not permitted to converse with match officials during Bundesliga fixtures this season, midfielder Eric Martel will serve as refereeing liaison. Köln are now the fifth German top flight side to change captains ahead of the coming season. Borussia Mönchengladbach (Tim Kleindienst), RB Leipzig (David Raum), and Bayer Leverkusen (Robert Andrich) also have new skippers.
Köln’s fellow Bundesliga newcomers Hamburg also surprisingly named the newly-acquired Yussuf Poulsen their new captain today. In the case of Köln, new Geißböcke head coach Lukas Kwasniok actually noted that he made the decision because both Hübers and his deputy Eric Martel sat on expiring contracts. Schwäbe’s current working papers in the cathedral city run through 2027.
Schwäbe reprised his role as Köln’s No. 1 after Jonas Urbig departed for Bayern Munich in the middle of last season. Instrumental to Köln’s promotion push, Schwäbe feels at home playing for the German club that gave him the opportunity to work as a starter in his native land for the first time in his career at the age of 27. Talk of him moving across the pond this summer was quickly quashed.
“[Hübers] had an A+ pre-season,” Kwasniok said when commenting on the switch at a Friday press conference. “[but], by October at the latest, I would have had to answer questions about whether the captain would be extending his expiring contract. Can a captain with an expiring contract deliver good performances at all? I figured I’d sidestepped these questions and kill two birds with one stone.”
