Christian Streich ennobles “popular figure” Jonas Hector

Coach Christian Streich from SC Freiburg praised the former national player Jonas Hector in the highest tones. “A great footballer, a great personality, a popular figure” is the captain of 1. FC Köln, who will end his career after the season.

“Go to the Republic and ask if anyone doesn’t like Jonas. He stands for humanity, correctness and simply has an attitude,” said Streich after Freiburg’s victory in Cologne (1-0) on Saturday: “It’s becoming increasingly rare . That is more important than every goal and every cross.”

Cologne’s identification figure was received with standing ovations in the RheinEnergie Stadium even before the game, and he himself was rather annoyed about the result afterwards. “I don’t want to talk about that now,” said Hector when asked about his farewell tour: “It’s about the game and not about me. If we don’t score goals, we can’t win either.”

During the week, coach Steffen Baumgart described the 32-year-old as “one of the best players in the Bundesliga” and even very cautiously dreamed of a sudden comeback (“The door is always open”).

For Christian Keller, Hector is “always welcome if he gets bored in the fall,” said the Cologne sports director on the Sky microphone. But: “All the reasons he gave me are totally understandable.”

In addition to Hector, the longest-serving FC professional Timo Horn will leave the club in the summer after 21 years. “We want to give them a good farewell in the last few games,” said midfielder Florian Kainz.