Lukas Podolski - “The Prince”: FC’s supporters might probably even have forgiven him had he moved to Gladbach or Leverkusen. No other player reached comparable popularity after Pierre Littbarski’s departure in 1993. The boy from Bergheim won hearts with witty and sometimes involuntarily comic sayings, and because after the 2004 relegation he stayed for the second tier and became top scorer there in 2005. In 2009 he returned after mixed years at Bayern. When he won the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, some of that shine also rubbed off on Köln, even if he was then an Arsenal player.