After its great start, Fortuna Köln is also making personnel changes in the regional league, bringing in a midfield talent from Bayer Leverkusen.

Fortuna Köln got off to a furious start in the Regionalliga, defeating the U21s of 1. FC Köln 5:1. A few days later, Fortuna introduced another addition.

Joshua Eze moves from Bayer Leverkusen to the south of Cologne. The 20-year-old defensive midfielder had played in Leverkusen’s various youth teams since 2010. Last year, Eze signed a professional player contract after a good season as captain of Leverkusen’s U19s in the A-Junioren-Bundesliga West – which has now been terminated.

Eze, who can also play in central defense, was unable to establish himself with the professionals. Since Bayer does not have an U23, he did not get the desired playing practice last season. Now the change.

“It took a long time, but we persevered. Already last summer there were initial contacts, then in December intensive talks. Now we are very happy that we could convince Joshua of our way. As a highly talented central defensive player, he is the next important building block in our squad planning,” says Sporting Director Matthias Mink.

Fortuna coach Markus von Ahlen knows the defensive all-rounder from Leverkusen. There, von Ahlen was already Eze’s coach, and the talent was also convincing in the test as a guest player, in which Fortuna played 2:2 against the professionals of 1. FC Köln before the start of the season. There he played over 90 minutes, both in defensive midfield and in the back four.

“I’m happy to have signed with Fortuna now. I hope we will play a successful season together and have a lot of fun together,” says Eze.

After winning the opener, Fortuna will also play at home on the second matchday. On Saturday (August 5, 2 p.m.), it’s against FC Wegberg-Beeck, who won their opening game against Fortuna Düsseldorf II.