FC Köln striker vaults a fence to show appreciation to fans

Those who dipsair at Emmanuel Adebayor’s attitude and Gary Neville’s defence of outrageous salaries can find solace in Lukas Podolski.

The Polish-born German national team striker played for FC Köln from the age of ten, but was begrudgingly sold in 2003 when Bayern Munich turned up with an irresistible €10m cheque. When the arrival of Luca Toni pushed him down the pecking order in Munich, however, Podolski returned to his childhood club for a similar €10m fee. Such was the Cologne fans’ love of their returning hero that they set up a website in order to raise money to fund the re-signing.

Since his return to North Rhine-Westphalia, Podolski has reciprocated the love shown to him by fans. Last night, FC Köln caused an upset in the DFB-Pokal cup (the German equivalent of the FA Cup)

Manic keeper caught living it up hours after defeat

The German festival of Oktoberfest (which actually happens mostly in September) is great. It takes place in Munich and provides a good excuse for everyone to get bladdered on quality beers for two and a half weeks, while dressed up in comedy blonde pigtail wigs.

However, it’s not the best place to be spotted if you’re a professional footballer whose team has just lost a bottom-of-the-table clash, and you were at fault for one of the goals.

That’s the pickle legendary ex-Arsenal keeper ‘Mad’ Jens Lehmann finds himself in today, having been dropped by Stuttgart after being snapped (pics here) gallivanting round the beer halls hours after a 2-0 defeat to FC Koln on Saturday.

German actress, TV presenter and underwear enthusiast

German actress Lilli Hollunder is best known in her home nation for her starring role in slightly tosh daily soap Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love). The 22-year-old has recently branched out into the world of TV presenting, and is now the face of FC-TV, the official channel of FC Köln.

In a recent interview with Bild, Lilli fawned over returning Cologne hero Lukas Podolski and revealed she has a “sexy friend” named Matthias, who plays for lowly FC Junkersdorf. 

One of the Bundesliga’s better known supporting ladies

Polish-born striker Lukas Podolski is hugely popular in Germany, but he hasn’t been having such a great time at Bayern Munich. He has already agreed to move back to FC Köln at the end of the season, which means Colgne will also be welcoming back his long-term girlfriend, Monika Puchalski.

Fans buy advertising space on Poldi’s face

Polish-born Germany striker Lukas Podolski is thoroughly unsettled at current club Bayern Munich, and has now secured a move back to his first Bundesliga club FC Köln, to begin in July.

Poldi is one of the most popular players in Deustchland, and the transfer fee is expected to be in the region of €10m. In order to bring their star player home, Cologne have enlisted the help of their fans, particularly those who own businesses.

At the club’s Poldi-Pixel site, fans may purchase an 8×8 pixel square for €25, which they can use to advertise a company and display wishes of goodwill towards the striker.

To cover the entire fee, FC Köln will have to sell 400,000 pixels.

Germans forced to train in -14°C conditions

While Hamburg and Bayern Munich are enjoying the pleasant 21°C climate of the United Arab Emirates, their Bundesliga colleagues aren’t having such a wonderful time.

FC Köln, pictured above, are enduring a -13°C freeze, while Hertha Berlin’s coach is attempting to beat the chill at the training ground by putting plastic bags over his socks.

Fortunately, our German friends aren’t big on complaining - they haven’t made gloves thick enough to make someone like Didier Drogba go and play in those kinds of conditions.

[Bild]