Two championship trophies and one promotion - in the end, Cologne hero Funkel shows the greatest gesture

"Because when the drums start, we're all ready!" And they really are, the people of Cologne. All together, united on the pitch of the RheinEnergieStadion. Arm in arm, they sing and celebrate.

Anyone who still had doubts about promotion should be convinced early on this Sunday afternoon. Eric Martel and Luca Waldschmidt put FC 2-0 ahead after just half an hour. Et Trömmelche jeht, as the goal anthem says.

In the 41st minute, a special moment occurred in the stadium. As the game was plodding along, a huge cheer suddenly erupted in the stands. All the fans turned away from the pitch toward the south stand, where a group had appeared in the adjacent box to the east. In their red tracksuits, they clearly stood out in the white sea of ​​ultras – and something shimmered... the championship trophy!

It's the Junior Bundesliga championship trophy, and the group in the red tracksuits is Cologne's A-Youth team. They spectacularly won the German championship this morning in the final against Bayer Leverkusen with a 5-4 victory. Now, the youngsters are presenting the trophy to great cheers – right in the middle of a game.

"Only FC Cologne will be German champions," the fans chant. The celebrations in the South Stand continue during the break. Great scenes!

And there are signs. Because Hamburger SV, who had already been promoted, lost to SpVgg Greuther Fürth in a parallel match, Cologne even took first place – the second division championship!

With the third goal by Florian Kainz, all the dams break, stadium announcer Michael Trippel immediately solemnly calls it the “goal to promotion”.

A hundred police officers and numerous stewards are getting ready in front of the stands, but when crowd favorite Mark Uth, who is playing the last game of his career and who always has a loud "Uuuuuuh" echoing from Cologne-Müngersdorf, it quickly becomes clear that the onslaught will soon be unstoppable.

In both the south and the north, fans climb over the fence, and during injury time the area between the pitch and the stands fills with party-loving supporters.

A final appeal to reason, but the safety net in the south curve is already being torn down...

Then the final whistle: Pure ecstasy! Stewards and the police immediately give up, and even Trippel immediately realizes: "Well, if you have to storm onto the field, at least pay attention!"

The fans climb onto the goals, tear a piece of green memory from the turf, collect advertising boards and, of course, cheer for the players they can get their hands on.

"We can make this day unforgettable for Effzeh," said legendary coach Friedhelm Funkel before the match. Promotion and the junior championship, "and that's exactly what happened," he said after the game.

But the club's men's team will also be presented with a championship trophy. While the newly promoted team in the west raises the silver trophy, the U19 team in the east celebrates with their trophy. A perfect symmetry.

Funkel, who is now promoted to the Bundesliga for the seventh time as a coach, shows another grand gesture at the press conference: he thanks his predecessor Gerhard Struber.

He emphasized that he played a "much greater role than I do" in the club's success. Funkel took over two games before the end of the season, after Effzeh had slipped into a results crisis under Struber and saw promotion in jeopardy.

Funkel took over a team that was "top-class trained and physically top" and that had "top-notch team spirit." The 71-year-old said he had "rarely experienced" such a thing.

While Effzeh will play first-division football next season, Funkel's future remains uncertain. He emphasizes that he is open to anything, including an extension of their contract.

For his counterpart, Lautern coach Thorsten Lieberknecht, there's no doubt about Funkel's abilities. "In top shape, not a gram of fat on him, can party like a beast," he says, advising Effzeh: "Open the box and hold on to him."