Bundesliga
Augsburg switch kits to help colour-blind Freiburg player
Augsburg helped out a Freiburg player in their Matchday 7 encounter by agreeing not to wear their away green shirts against the hosts’ red kits because Lukas Kübler is colour blind and struggles to tell the strips apart.
The visitors instead donned their home kit, which is mostly white, for their trip to the Europa-Park Stadion following a request by Freiburg, who have made decisions on kit colours in recent years in consultation with Kübler to ensure he’s not at a disadvantage.
“It’s really bad for me with red and green, but I also can’t really tell the difference between other colours that are close. It’s especially tough when things are moving quickly,” the defender told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The 33-year-old also explained that he sometimes struggles with red and yellow cards, as well as yellow and orange bibs in training, which can “get lost” for him against the green grass.
It isn’t the first time that Freiburg or an opponent have played in an unexpected kit to help out Kübler. It happened as recently as Matchday 20 of the last season when Freiburg switched to their white away kits when they hosted VfB Stuttgart, who were playing in their green away strip.
It was again the case on Matchday 26 of 2020/21, again against Augsburg, when Freiburg changed to yellow up against the visitors’ green.
Speaking of the decision back in February 2024, ex-Freiburg coach Christian Streich said: “It’s simply a very good idea to do it. We don’t want someone to pass the ball to an opponent and they score.”
The club legend even recalled a tale from when he was in charge of the U19s and a player kept passing the ball to the opposition before admitting he was struggling to tell the difference.
Streich went on to suggest that clubs should ensure that they have third kits that aren’t red or green, hoping to avoid more clashes of these common jersey colours that can be problematic. He also claimed that there are certainly players in recent years who’ve been nervous when finding out the kit colours – a concept that seems banal to many people.
Kübler is the first Bundesliga player to speak openly about being colour blind and the problems he’s faced. The Freiburg defender believes there are more who have the same issue but are worried about the reaction. Previously, only ex-Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim midfielder Thomas Delaney had confirmed he also struggled.
It’s believed that around one in 10 men in Europe suffer with red-green colour blindness. There’s also the less common yellow-blue colour blindness – a colour combination historically seen more often in the Bundesliga in clashes between the likes of Dortmund and local rivals Schalke or Bochum, for example.