1. FC Köln signs Thijs Dallinga on loan from Bologna with option to buy

Thijs Dallinga is heading to Cologne. The 26-year-old Dutch forward has agreed to join 1. FC Köln on loan from Bologna FC 1909, with the German club holding an option to make the move permanent for a reported fee in the region of €11 million.

A Bologna chapter that never quite clicked

Dallinga arrived in Serie A in July 2024 when Bologna paid somewhere between €16 million and €18 million to prise him away from Toulouse. The expectations were reasonable: a striker who had just scored 26 goals across 69 appearances in France was supposed to add cutting edge to a Bologna side playing European football.

It did not go to plan. In 54 appearances for Bologna, Dallinga managed just five goals, a return that tells its own story about a player who struggled to translate his French form into the demands of Italian football.

The gap between expectation and output is easier to understand when you trace Dallinga’s career arc. At Excelsior in the 2021-22 season, he scored 32 goals in just 37 league matches. Toulouse then signed him and he delivered again, scoring 26 goals in 69 appearances, before Bologna came calling with a fee that reflected his stock at its peak.

Why Köln moved for him now

Köln won the 2. Bundesliga title in the 2024-25 season to earn promotion back to Germany’s top flight, then spent their first season back in the Bundesliga finishing 14th in 2025-26.

The reported loan fee sits around €1 million, with the option to buy the player outright for approximately €11 million, though some reports have cited a figure closer to €13 million. Either way, it represents a meaningful discount from the €16-18 million Bologna originally spent.

Werder Bremen were among the clubs tracking Dallinga’s situation, and the fact that Köln secured the deal suggests a degree of persuasion beyond simply being the highest bidder on loan fees.

What the move means for both clubs

For Bologna, moving him on loan recovers some costs through the loan fee, keeps a sell-on option alive through the purchase clause, and frees up both wages and a squad spot. If Dallinga rediscovers his form in Germany, Köln will likely trigger the clause and Bologna recover something meaningful from an investment that looked like it was heading toward a painful write-down. If he underperforms again, Bologna take him back and reassess without having sold low in a moment of poor form.

Dallinga was born on August 3, 2000, making him 26 for the duration of this loan, an age at which forwards are typically expected to be approaching their prime years. The transfer was agreed in mid-August 2026.

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