Former Bundesliga goalkeeper Georg Koch dies

Long-time Bundesliga goalkeeper Georg Koch is dead. The Bergisch-Gladbacher died after a long, serious illness at the age of 54. His former club Fortuna Düsseldorf announced this on Wednesday at X. In 2023, Koch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer – from that point on the disease was considered incurable.

Koch played a total of 213 Bundesliga games for Düsseldorf, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, MSV Duisburg and Arminia Bielefeld. In the second Bundesliga he played for Energie Cottbus for one season. Koch left a lasting impression, especially at Fortuna, for whom he played a total of 131 games between 1991 and 1997 – in 1995, after a breakthrough from the third division, he was promoted to the top German league with the team.

“Rest in peace, Georg Koch. Our former goalkeeper has died after a serious illness. We are in deep mourning,” the club wrote in its statement: “The condolences and sympathy of all fortunes go out to his family, his friends and everyone who knew and valued Georg Koch.”

Koch, who played in the Champions League with PSV Eindhoven and reached the DFB Cup final with Kaiserslautern in 2003, started his coaching career after his professional career. Most recently he worked as a goalkeeping coach for third division club Viktoria Köln.

The former goalkeeper, who worked abroad for PSV, Dinamo Zagreb and Rapid Vienna, did not let the diagnosis get him down. “There are days when I’m depressed and my head is empty. But there are also days when I could tear up trees,” said Koch in an interview with Sport1 in 2024.