Via Texas to Adelaide |
Baumgart plans family reunion in Australia
1. FC Köln on a big US tour. Coach Steffen Baumgart (50) and his family on an even bigger world tour…
Let’s go! Four days after the 0:2 in Berlin, Cologne starts the US adventure, flying today at 10.05 a.m. from Frankfurt to Austin (Texas). FC is visiting America until November 24th, where they are doing a PR trip to bridge the first part of the long World Cup break (68 days).
Surprisingly, Katja and Emilia Baumgart, the wife and daughter of the Cologne head coach, are also on board flight LH 468. And that has a touching background.
The dog has to stay at home. Baumgart’s wife Katja and daughter Emilia fly with them to Austin
The trainer’s wife and the eldest daughter are not officially part of the tour group, so they live in a different hotel in Austin. The actual purpose of the trip is a week further in the future and brings the family together again for the first time four months later.
Baumgart explains to BILD: “Our youngest daughter Fiona has been in Australia for a school year since mid-July. After the trip to the US, Katja, Emilia and I will fly directly to Adelaide via Melbourne and visit Fiona there. So it worked out that they had a look at Austin a few days beforehand and then we would fly on together and not everyone had to go back to Cologne alone or I first.”
Family reunion on the other side of the world.
Before the well-deserved family vacation, the coach in Austin still fulfills his FC duties. On the program: a few training sessions with the squad, a test kick against Stuttgart (November 19), plus visits to an NFL game and NASA. And above all is the community spirit after a strenuous first half of the season.
The flight to Austin takes about 12 hours. A total of 22 players are present alongside the coaching team and officials (including President Werner Wolf). Sports director Christian Keller (43) travels to New York to meet DFL representatives, the German-American Chamber of Commerce and a BVB delegation. After that, he too will come to Austin.
Baumgart and his family, on the other hand, jet off further down under…
