Former West Ham United technical director Tim Steidten is back in the Bundesliga with relegation-threatened FC Koln.
The one-time Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen scout was appointed as the ‘squad planner’ at the Cathedral City club earlier this month.
As a result, Tim Steidten finds himself at close quarters with two centre-halves who had previously been linked with moves to West Ham United; Timo Hubers and Rav van den Berg.
Summerville, Todibo and Mavropanos are firing at last!
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Tim Steidten technical director of West Ham United ahead of the Premier League match between West Ham United FC and Aston Villa FC at London Stadium on August 17, 2024 in London, England.
West Ham United reportedly wanted FC Koln duo Rav van den Berg and Timo Hubers
HITC Sport reported in 2024 that West Ham were keeping tabs on then-Middlesbrough defender Van den Berg. Steidten was still in situ at the London Stadium at that point. It is not a stretch, then, to suggest that he was behind their interest in the younger brother of Brentford giant Sepp van den Berg.
Dutch Under-21 international Rav joined Koln last summer from the Riverside for a fee of around £11 million.
Rav van den Berg during 1. FC Köln v Borussia Dortmund - Bundesliga
Photo by Oliver Kaelke/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images
Hubers was linked by the Daily Mail in 2022, at a time when James Tarkowski, Nat Phillips and Joe Worrall were making up a largely homegrown selection of central defensive targets.
Now 29 and having featured in only eight Bundesliga matches this season due to a serious knee injury, a Premier League switch appears to have passed Hubers by.
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The big task facing Steidten in the summer meanwhile, regardless of whether Koln survive or suffer the drop, will revolve around Said El Mala.
One of the most exciting and coveted young attackers in Europe, El Mala has been linked with a whole host of clubs from Bayern Munich and Chelsea to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Steidten wanted Antonio Nusa and Victor Boniface at the Hammers
Back at West Ham, the much-maligned Steidten may be ripe for a bit of a retconning.
A £500,000 signing from Paris FC, Mohamadou Kante could yet prove to be a Steidten-driven masterstroke. Some of his more big-money acquisitions – such as Jean-Clair Todibo and Crysencio Summerville – have also come on leaps and bounds since Nuno Espiritio Santo took the reins.
The German has been very open, meanwhile, about a number of Bundesliga-based talents he looked at bringing to East London.
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Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United celebrates after scoring a goal to make it 2-0 during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on February 7, 2026 in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Steidten wanted RB Leipzig and Norway winger Antonio Nusa.
“To be honest, I would have liked to bring [Nusa] to West Ham,” he told Sky Germany during an interview in which Steidten admitted his admiration for Everton’s Tyler Dibling.
“When he’s fit, [Nusa] has enormous potential and is an outstanding player.”
The now-injury-scarred Victor Boniface was a West Ham target during the Steidten era too, as was Jonathan Burkhardt; the prolific Eintracht Frankfurt striker who previously led the line for Mainz.
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