Record night for youth football as Köln host Inter in front of 50,000 | OneFootball

FC Köln U19s’s are playing Inter Milan U19s right now in the UEFA Youth League round of 32, and they are doing it in front of a sold-out RheinEnergieSTADION.

Around 50,000 supporters are inside the ground, setting a new attendance record for the competition.

Every one of the 50,000 tickets has been sold, comfortably surpassing the previous Youth League record of 40,368, which was set in Turkey, during Inter’s match against Trabzonspor in April 2025. Inter, once again, are part of a historic evening.

Demand for tickets has been relentless. In the hours leading up to kick-off, only a handful of away-end tickets from €5 and a few Business Seats were still available, while the club’s official ticket exchange stayed busy with late sales.

Köln qualified for the Youth League by winning the German U19 Championship last season and have backed that up in Europe, knocking out Racing Union Luxembourg and FC Midtjylland to reach the last 32.

Now, as the match plays out under the floodlights, Köln’s teenagers are experiencing something almost unheard of in youth football - a full stadium and the chance to test themselves against one of the continent’s most famous academies.