The end of an era at 1. FC Cologne: Club mascot Hennes VIII is retired at the season opening of the Bundesliga soccer team. For “health reasons”, the now twelve-year-old billy goat can no longer stand day after day at the edge of the field in Cologne’s stadium. That’s what the club said Thursday night.
The animal, which has accompanied FC as a mascot since August 2008, suffers from “age-related arthrosis” and can be visited in the future in its enclosure in Cologne Zoo.
“We don’t want our club animal to have to stand in the stadium in pain at any time. After the promotion and the change of season, it is now the perfect end and time for Hennes VIII to enjoy his retirement,” said Alexander Wehrle, CFO.
While Hennes VIII will enjoy his retirement at Cologne Zoo in the future, his successor is already in the starting blocks. Hennes IX, a still uncastrated buck of the breed “Bunte Deutsche Edelziege”, was born in February 2018, since August of the same year he also lives in the Cologne Zoo.
He was a “teenager with long horns,” according to the club’s newsletter. Visually, it should resemble the first Hennes, which FC received as a gift from Circus Williams on 13 February 1950.
