Longest-Serving Player Gone: Benno Schmitz & Faride Alidou to leave Köln

Benno Schmitz has been at 1. FC Köln since 2018 and has played under six managers during his time at 1. FC Köln since the 2018-19 campaign.

He enjoyed his most successful spell in the 2021-22 Bundesliga season under head coach Steffen Baumgart, where he drew comparisons to the Brazilian full-back Cafu due to his crossing ability and overlapping runs.

During this campaign, he had the eighth most crosses in the league and had five assists in the Bundesliga.

However, since then he has fallen out of favour under two successive managers and was utilised as more of a rotational player as both Rasmus Carstensen and Jan Thielmann were preferred over him at points.

For Faride Alidou, however, the story is quite different as he started off poorly at 1. FC Köln under Steffen Baumgart. In January, he was transformed by Timo Schultz into a starter and provided four goals for the Billy Goats in the Rückrunde.

Despite this, his form petered and he missed huge chances in back-to-back games in the final weeks for Köln as they got relegated. In his case, it was the matter of the club not wanting to pull the €3 million release clause as it was deemed too expensive.