Football – Cologne – Media: Defender Rafael Chekos before moving to America – Sports

Cologne (dpa) – Defense chief Rafael Chekos will move from German first-division soccer club FC Cologne to Chicago Fire in the United States, with immediate effect, according to media reports in Cologne. First the newspaper “Bild” reported on individuals. The 31-year-old missed the start of Cologne training on Sunday, as were injured players Kingsley Schindler, Mark Uth and Sebastian Anderson. Chichus, who still has a contract until summer 2022, has been with FC since 2018 and played 111 competitive matches for the club during that time.

Prior to the first session, which also featured goalkeeper Timo Horn, Dejan Ljubicic and Tomas Ostrack, the club ramped up testing and hygiene procedures after consulting with the health department and the team completed a PCR test. Large parts of the coaching staff, team, and staff already underwent a booster vaccine after the last first round match. “We want to minimize the risk of injury as much as possible,” said athletic director Thomas Kessler. “For this reason, we made the boys aware again before training began.”

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