The football world did not find out about the imminent end of the career of the 32-year-old professional footballer Jonas Hector on Saturday evening from Jonas Hector himself. That reveals a lot about this footballer and people. Born in Saarbrücken, who dedicated his entire 13-year professional career to 1. FC Köln, he always wanted to be left alone by the public. Family and football are his life. He never really wanted to stand in the brightly lit public shop window.
So the football world found out about Hector’s imminent end of career from Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart. The press conference after his FC’s 3-1 win at TSG Hoffenheim was already over, the presenter had already wished everyone a safe journey home when Baumgart spoke again. “There is still important news for everyone in Cologne,” he said in a depressed voice: “Jonas Hector has just announced to the team that he will be retiring in the summer.” Baumgart politely forbade further questions on this subject, which gave the message a somewhat mysterious note. Hector has never revealed much about his private life in particular.
At 1. FC Köln, nobody should have been surprised by the captain’s resignation at the end of the season. Hector had long ago stated that he did not want to extend his contract, which ended in 2023, and that he might already want to end his career. That’s exactly what he has now officially announced. The 223-time Bundesliga player and 43-time national player gave an apparently very emotional farewell speech in the dressing room after the win in Sinsheim. Long applause sounded from the Cologne dressing room, and Baumgart’s depressed mood also suggested sadness. The coach once said of Hector: “Jonas embodies the whole club.” From this it can be deduced that 1. FC Köln loses a lot more than a very good defensive and leading player.
The hope that the Cologne transfer ban will make Hector rethink is gone.
“The long applause from the team in the dressing room honored a great player from 1. FC Köln,” said sporting director Christian Keller. Hector himself did not even appear before the journalists for this news. He hadn’t done that often in months. Regarding his resignation, he was only quoted by the club: “After my family, it was important to me to first inform my team, the coaching team and the staff. For the moment, I don’t want to say more than that I’m incredibly grateful for that what we have together at FC.” Most recently, many Cologne fans had hoped that Hector could at least hang on for another season because FC is threatened with inability to act on the transfer market in the summer if a Fifa ban imposed on the club by the Cas Sports Court is neither revised nor suspended. That hope is now gone.
The Cologne team almost managed to stay up in the league with their win. This may have been a relevant factor for Hector to announce his decision now. Sports director Keller asked the reporters to “leave Hector alone for the next few days”. He explained to those responsible at the club that he was ending his career so early. “Every single one of his motives is understandable for us,” said Keller, without going into these reasons, “after the season we will say thank you.”
Hector was part of the German squad for the 2016 European Championships in France and played through all six games there, including the semi-final he lost against the hosts. In 2017 he won the Confed Cup in Russia with the DFB selection. In 2014 and 2019 he was promoted to the Bundesliga as a second division champion with 1. FC Köln and he took part in the European Cup twice with the club (2017 and 2022).
The club wrote on its website: “Jonas Hector is one of the greatest players to have worn this jersey! The captain has shown incomparable loyalty to FC for more than a decade – in good times and bad.” If all goes well, Hector will play his last game on his 33rd birthday on May 27th at the Cologne stadium against FC Bayern Munich.
