Lukas Podolski Gets a Million Dollar Homepage

By: Daryl | February 4th, 2009

The good news is that the Lukas Podolski to FC Köln transfer is definitely happening, with Poldi trading in life as a Bayern benchwarmer for a hero’s welcome on return to his first Bundesliga club.

The bad news is that it’s not happening until summer 2009, possibly because Bundesliga teams don’t do everything last minute. Unlike some other leagues we won’t mention (cough, English Premier League, cough).

But wait, there’s some quirky news to balance it out. Because Köln doesn’t usually pay €10m euros for players, the club is having to do a bit of improvisation with the fundraising, which is how Poldi-Pixel was born:

Basically, Poldi-Pixel is a web page with an image of Poldi’s face on it, as well as the famous Köln cathedral, and the message “In Kölle zo Hus!” (which I can’t translate, can you help?)

Blocks of pixels (8×8 according to The Spoiler) are on sale for €25 each, where individuals/businesses can leave their logo and a message of support for Podolski.

Sound familiar? That’s because Köln basically stole the idea from the Million Dollar Homepage kid. Maybe he could sue Köln and have Podolski play for his Sunday league team in England?

But just because it’s not an original idea, doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea.

It won’t raise the whole €10m. Much like Million Dollar Homepage, if Köln sell all their Poldi-Pixels they’ll raise €1m. But when you consider that Bayern and Köln spent more or less forever haggling over the price, with Koln offering 7.5m and Bayern wanting 10m, then Poldi-Pixel could very well make all the difference.

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Category: Bundesliga

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diana

'And the money the German FA pays when Poldi plays for Germany will go to Bayern as well.'
Jan, are you sure that was also part of the deal of him heading back to Cologne in the summer? Unless I miss out on something, I have only read about the welcome-back party and the friendly against Bayern.

It will be interesting to see who is on the strikers' list when the squad for the friendly match against Norway next week is announced tomorrow...considering Poldi has been down with a flu for a while and did not even make it to the bench in the match away at Hamburg last Friday. That was the last I know. Unless Poldi is miraculously well.
Jan

"In Kölle zo Hus!"

This is local Cologne dialect and just means "At home in Cologne".

Cologne will also stage a big Poldi party complete with a friendly against Bayern to raise more money. And the money the German FA pays when Poldi plays for Germany will go to Bayern as well. All this will help cover the difference between Cologne's €7.5m and the €10m Bayern will receive.