Head down to Koln’s training ground, tucked away in leafy surroundings in the south west of the city, and it’s easy to see why goalkeeper Timo Horn - a local lad and life-long fan of the club - is so beloved by the supporters.

That the majority of training sessions are open encourages Koln fans to come and watch, with plenty lining up for autographs and selfies after. A footballer obliging in this regard, as Horn does, is by no means groundbreaking but having seen him even record birthday messages over WhatsApp for fans when asked, the 24-year-old goalkeeper goes above and beyond what’s required.

“I know what it was like as a young kid in Koln to come here to watch training and try and collect as many autographs as I could from the players at the time,” says Horn, who first joined the club at the age of nine.

“I always found it hard to accept when the players would just walk past me and pay me no attention, especially when I was looking at them as role models.”

Along with his dad Stefan, Horn went to every Koln home game. His family still have two season tickets for the south stand at the RheinEnergieStadion. He knows then how, before he was born, the club used to regularly compete for the Bundesliga title and qualify for Europe.

That hasn’t been the case during Horn’s time as a supporter or a player. Prior to qualifying in May, 1992 was the last time Koln played in the Europa League, then the UEFA Cup, but he still has fond memories as a supporter.

He recalls being one of the fans who raced onto the pitch in 2008 when Koln were promoted after a 2-0 win against Jürgen Klopp’s Mainz, one of five promotions in the last 20 years. Relegation however preceded each of them. Horn can recall three of them as a fan but for the most recent one in 2012, he was an unused substitute.

A painful experience for Horn the fan but for Horn the player, it was just the chance he needed. The following season he became the first-choice goalkeeper at the age of 19. Koln would still average a crowd of over 40,000 even then in the 2. Bundesliga. You can understand why he once described the pressure as immense.

Horn spent his youth asking Koln's players for autographs (FC Koln ) (FC Koln)

As they prepared for yet another second-tier campaign, Arsenal came over to play a friendly. Looking back Horn says: “It was hard to imagine that we’d ever play against Arsenal in a competitive fixture.”

“To be taking them on in the Europa League a few years later … we could never have predicted that.”

This was the game Horn wanted. On the day of the Europa League draw, he talked about Arsenal being his favourite English club and how he’d always been a little bit of a fan when he was younger.

“I’ve always thought of Arsene Wenger as a fantastic manager,” says Horn.

“I like the football culture in England and Arsenal just had something in my view that the other teams didn’t have. I’ve always enjoyed the style of football they try to employ even if they haven’t won that many titles.”

Horn spends time with the fans after training and even sends birthday WhatsApp messages for them (FC Koln ) (FC Koln)

Arsenal's below par start to the season has not affected Horn's great respect for Arsene Wenger either.

“People forget quite quickly the times gone by and the years where he made a real impact on the club to get them where they are today, which is why I don’t quite understand the protests.”

He picks out Olivier Giroud as “a player I admire in terms of his style of play” but admits he’s never owned an Arsenal shirt. “I was always a Koln fan first and foremost,” he says, smiling.

As a result, the club’s promotion back to the Bundesliga in 2014 was that little bit sweeter. This time he wasn’t running onto the pitch as a fan. He was already on it as a player and, as he remains today, an important one.

In June, his fellow Bundesliga players voted him as the best goalkeeper in the division behind Manuel Neuer. Prominent German football magazine 11Freunde called Horn “the symbol of Koln’s upswing” last season whilst his current coach, Peter Stöger, singled him out for his consistency before the start of the current campaign.

“Timo has only been to blame for two or three goals since I came to Koln [in 2013],” said Stöger, the architect of the club’s rise since joining from Austria Vienna. Horn is equally complimentary of the “very calm” Stöger.

Horn spoke exclusively to The Independent ahead of Thursday's game (FC Koln ) (FC Koln)

“I don’t think there are many head coaches that would act the same in the supermarket as they do in front of the media, which is never easy for a head coach. He always finds the appropriate words and, for a club like this, it’s important to have a coach like him.”

Horn continues: “When he joined the club he told us straight away that he doesn’t want to be one of those coaches that when he comes in the dressing room we all feel like we have to stop talking. Instead he wanted to get involved in our conversations and have a very relaxed approach to exerting his authority.”

That was shown as recently as April when Stöger bumped into midfielder Konstantin Rausch at a restaurant in the city. So Stöger joined Rausch for dinner and the pair ended up being there for another two hours. His commitment to wanting to improve each of his players is clear but he didn’t feel he’d managed to do so when another midfielder Daniel Halfar left the club in 2015. Stöger sent him a text apologising for not having been able to get the most out of him during his time at the club.

The small personal touches are evident when you see Stöger with the local press. You’ll see him greet each of the journalists with a handshake and from time to time he’ll share a soft drink with them after a press conference too.

His level-headed approach matches that of sporting director Jörg Schmadtke who has ably assisted Stöger with smart work in the transfer market despite Koln’s budget being in the bottom half of the Bundesliga. Europa League qualification was the culmination of that.

“I don’t think we finished fifth last season based on how much individual talent we have,” says Horn.

Horn praised head coach Peter Stöger for taking the side from 2. Bundesliga to the Europa League in four seasons (Getty)

“Of course, we’ve got players like [Jonas] Hector or, last season, [Anthony] Modeste that could definitely make a difference but overall it’s the collective effort of the team and the team spirit that saw us turn games around last season.”

Modeste may have struggled with Blackburn in the Premier League but 25 goals for Koln last season led home fans to call him ‘Football God’. Yet a reported fee of £32m saw him leave for the Chinese Super League in the summer, with the club using that money to spend just shy of £15m on replacement Jhon Cordoba from Mainz.

Things haven’t clicked for Cordoba and Koln yet domestically this season. Their 3-0 defeat to Augsburg on Saturday means they’re bottom of the Bundesliga but despite being the only team yet to get a point this season, the excitement about European football coming back to the city remains.

Interest from other clubs will increase in Horn should he handle himself on the European stage as well as he does in the Bundesliga. When asked about the prospect of playing abroad, he said: “In principle the thought of moving to England is appealing but it’s not something I’m thinking about right now.”

“I can’t rule it out completely. I often had chances and offers to move to England as a youth player, but in my opinion the best goalkeeping education is here in Germany which is why I’ve always stayed. Of course, when you’re more of a finished product as a goalkeeper and don’t have as much room to develop further then it’s certainly interesting prospect - but right now I’m incredibly happy here in Koln.”

He continues: “At the age of 15 or 16, Liverpool were very interested in me. But I didn’t go there because I felt the goalkeeping schooling in Germany was much better and I had enough examples, for instance Ron-Robert Zieler who came back after a year [at Leicester], and that’s why I stayed in Koln. It definitely wasn’t the wrong decision!”