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spized x Casa de España: how spized supported a Cologne club with a remarkable history

Ideal C.F. Casa de España from Cologne is, by its own account, the oldest migrant club in the city. Founded in 1967 by Spanish immigrants, the club today fields eight youth age groups and four senior teams. A few weeks ago, spized handed over a donation of 1,000 euros along with a kit set for the youth section. In this interview, Thomas Bastian, U11 coach and the club's press officer, explains how a support centre for Spanish immigrants became a football club that still lives its Spanish flair today.

Lukas Nahser | Club management

August 5, 2026 |

What’s on this page

1. From flat hunting to league football

2. Multicultural, but Spanish at its core

3. How spized and Casa de España came together

4. An eagle with good timing

5. More than a coach

6. Youth work between waiting lists and a shortage of pitches

From flat hunting to league football

The club Ideal C.F. Casa grew out of a support centre for Spanish immigrants in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. "There was a so-called Casa de España," Bastian says in his interview with spized. "That was a kind of organisation for Spanish people in Germany that helped them look for flats, but also, for example, to go to church and hold Spanish services." Out of that environment, a football team formed in 1967/68 that took on the name of the support centre and quickly entered league football. At first exclusively with Spanish players.

"It was a really nice story, because right next to the Spanish house there was a Portuguese community as well, and they liked playing against each other," Bastian says, and reveals: "Portuguese team against Spanish team, that sometimes got fairly heated."

Multicultural, but Spanish at its core

Today the children at the club come from many different countries. According to Bastian, the Spanish flair has remained all the same: chorizo instead of bratwurst, tapas burgers and patatas bravas at the side of the pitch, Spanish music, a largely Spanish board. "Without that mix, the club probably wouldn't still be alive in this form," Bastian says. "Even so, we have tried to keep this Spanish feeling going." In his assessment, that is why the club keeps waiting lists rather than recruiting members, especially in the younger age groups.

The full interview with Thomas Bastian on YouTube

How spized and Casa de España came together

The sportswear manufacturer and the club have had a connection for some time that reaches beyond the latest donation. The first men's team has been playing in spized kits for a while now, as have several of the club's youth teams. A few weeks ago, further support was added: a donation of 1,000 euros along with an additional kit set for the youth section.

According to Bastian, donations of this kind mostly go into shared pitch equipment at the club. The club shares its pitch with other teams, which wears out materials such as youth goals, bibs or training aids faster than exclusive use would. "Goals in particular are always a highlight when you can buy them," Bastian says. "But basics like bibs or cones too. Money that gets donated here actually always goes into equipment fairly quickly."

The new kit set went to Bastian's own youth team (currently U11, previously U10) and he designed it himself using the spized configurator. From the coming season, the club says the U9 will play in the kits as well. "We always get positive feedback for the kits," Bastian says.

An eagle with good timing

Bastian designed the kit for his youth team himself. Taking its cue from the club's nickname, 'Las Aguilas' (the eagles), an eagle's head with a feather motif sits on the chest. The kit shines in orange, created by a gradient of the Spanish club colours yellow and red. It is not a deliberate anniversary kit, but the timing of the design fits well: in 2027 the club celebrates its 60th anniversary. For next year, Bastian reveals, they are already considering designing a proper anniversary kit.

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More than a coach

Bastian slipped into his role rather than looking for it. "I actually got into this position back then without wanting to," he says. His predecessor had asked in the team's WhatsApp group whether anyone could help out, "and a week later it was: I'm out now, have fun." He has been coaching for three years since then.

The work is not paid. "You definitely have to want this. It takes a lot of time, and you have to be clear: it's a job on top of the job," Bastian says. What he gets instead: "Massive appreciation from the players, or from the parents when a thank you comes. And that emotional experience when the boys or the girls put in a really good game." You have to "pretty much be born for it", he says, because not everyone does this.

For the children, by his own assessment, he is more than a sports instructor. He is also someone they can turn to and sometimes a mediator in disputes. What he wants to pass on to them besides the football: "Getting along socially. That children learn to contribute to a group, that they perhaps let go of their fears about people they don't know." It is not easy, he says, especially when a child joins a team that has already settled. "And also resolving conflicts, that's an important thing too. You learn that really well at a football club like this."

Youth work between waiting lists and a shortage of pitches

The club counts eight youth age groups according to Bastian, some of them split further internally. The current U8, for example, is big enough for three parallel teams. Bastian names the shortage of volunteer coaches and the lack of training pitches as the biggest structural challenges: "Here in Cologne, like pretty much every big city, we have the problem that there is very little space for football pitches." Overbearing parents on the touchline, a topic often discussed in youth football, have not been an issue in his own team so far.

In the end, one thing above all stays with Bastian: "The children probably identify with the club even more through the kits than they would without them." They wear them, he says, long since not only on the pitch but at school and in the neighbourhood, in everyday life between matches. Even opposing teams notice the look: "The opposing teams always celebrated us," Bastian says. Above all when the white kits with the Spanish stripe are joined by the fans' own Spanish chant.

For a club that, by its own assessment, otherwise tends to be overlooked in Cologne football, that is not a side effect. It is exactly the point where the kit and the club's history come together: what began almost 60 years ago as a support centre for Spanish immigrants is carried on today in the everyday lives of children who need no Spanish roots to identify with the eagle on their chest.

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