The people in charge at FC Viktoria Köln are angry. The reason: a player with whom the Cologne club had already reached an agreement canceled his contract with the third-division club shortly before the signing deadline.

On Monday – June 17, 2024 – Forcasting picked up the phone and dialed Stephan Küsters’ number.

Our editorial team had learned that FC Viktoria Köln were on the verge of signing Bentley Baxter Bahn from SV Waldhof Mannheim. Küsters confirmed the forcasting information.

However, the Viktoria sporting director also added: “That was the plan until a few hours ago: Baxter Bahn was supposed to sign with us this week. The contract was on the desk and the date for the medical examination had already been set. We’ve already booked a hotel room for him so that the player feels comfortable.”

Küsters was annoyed that the 31-year-old Hamburg native, who played a whopping 268 third-division games, suddenly turned down the Cologne club after all. On the other hand, the 52-year-old is actually a little happy about it. “You can have many conversations with a player. In the end, you can only look the person in the eye. But in the end, the player’s true character was revealed here. We can do without characters like that at Viktoria. Regardless of how good the player would be for us in sporting terms. We’d rather have clean boys in the dressing room,” explained Küsters.

And: If someone cancels, then they should be man enough to tell the truth and explain it to you personally. We found out the truth in a roundabout way. That’s very weak for such an experienced player like Bentley Baxter Bahn.

Stephan Küsters

Once he got going, the Viktoria manager really got going: “I can understand why a player suddenly cancels. It’s all good. That’s how business works. But it always depends on how. We have fulfilled his every wish and anyone who has followed the talks between us, the player and the coach will agree with me that this refusal is very unusual. And: If someone is going to cancel, then they should be man enough to tell the truth and explain it to you personally. We found out the truth in a roundabout way. That’s very weak for such an experienced player like Bentley Baxter Bahn.”

According to RS information, there is of course also a reason for Baxter Bahn’s sudden change of heart: Alemannia Aachen. As our editorial team found out, the promoted third division team started courting the attacking midfielder and he ultimately fell weak. When RS confronted Küsters with Aachen, he said: “It’s not my job to comment on that.”

Erdal Celik, technical director of Alemannia, did not want to comment on the Baxter Bahn personnel matter to Forcasting.