Berlin (AFP) – French striker Anthony Modeste admitted enjoying some schadenfreude after his match-winning goal deepened the crisis at Bundesliga rivals Wolfsburg as he took revenge on their sports director Joerg Schmadtke.
“You always see each other twice in life. I’m happy because we won against Joerg Schmadtke’s team. It’s nice to send Wolfsburg into a crisis,” Modeste told broadcaster ARD.
Modeste’s header in the 89th minute sealed a 3-2 win at hosts Wolfsburg, who had twice taken the lead, but have now lost their last six games in all competitions.
Having led the Bundesliga in mid September, Wolfsburg have fallen down the table to 11th ahead of Friday’s away match at league leaders Bayern while Cologne are eighth.
The ill blood between Modeste and Schmadtke stems from 2017.
At the time, Schmadtke was sports director at Cologne, who the same year sold Modeste to Chinese club Tianjin Tianhai FC, which has since been dissolved, for a bumper transfer reportedly worth 35 million euros ($39 million).
At the time, Modeste made it clear he did not want to move and the striker returned to Germany after a year.
Schmadtke left Cologne in the 2018 off season to become sports director at Wolfsburg.
Modeste rejoined Cologne for 2018-19, helping them win promotion that season from the second division.
This season, he has scored 10 goals in 16 Bundesliga games since spending the first half of the year on loan to French club Saint-Etienne.
He is a fans’ favourite at Cologne, where he has scored 68 goals in 139 games having first joined the club in 2015.
