A woman trains the men. Sabrina Wittmann is a pioneer in German professional football. Will she remain the only female coach? Or is she the first in a long-overlooked development?
Ivica Grlic knows how things work in school. “Nobody gets upset about whether a male or female teacher teaches,” says the sports director of third division club FC Ingolstadt 04. “It’s always about the content. If a student or a team can identify with it, then the team will follow – just like a class.” He has now entrusted his boys to a female teacher on a permanent basis, in this case a football teacher: Sabrina Wittmann (32).
In German men’s football, she is the first woman to take over a professional club on a permanent basis. As the first of many other female coaches? “Of course – as things stand now – it is something unique, but every club has to decide for itself,” says Grlic, who sees the big picture through perhaps the somewhat smaller club glasses.
“Signal or no signal or PR – that’s not what it’s about,” explains the 48-year-old: “It’s all about content, about qualifications.” Which is why Wittmann, who grew up at the FCI, is exactly the right person for the Schanzer apprentices. Grlic describes her as authentic, a people-pleaser and good in terms of content.
Only a few women with a trainer’s license
But Wittmann is also a statistical rarity. There is a general lack of female coaches in German football. Last year, the German Football Association (DFB) and its 21 regional associations awarded the grassroots C-level coaching license to 5,413 people, and just 456 were women. Of the 1,835 B-level licenses, which allow you to coach men’s teams up to the fifth-tier top league, 118 went to women and girls.
In total, as of December 31, 2023, almost 32,000 people held a valid C license, including 2,563 women and girls, a share of 8 percent. There are 681 B license holders (3.8 percent), 17,817 in total. Only three female coaches received the A license, and only one received the highest license, the UEFA Pro license.
Before Wittmann, only two other female head coaches were at least somewhat recognized in men’s football. Inka Grings (SV Straelen) and Imke Wübbenhorst (Sportfreunde Lotte) once coached a men’s fourth division team.
Both welcome Wittmann’s rise from Ingolstadt’s youth coach to head coach. This is “absolutely” a signal to the industry, says 45-year-old Grings, who most recently coached the Swiss women’s national team. She sees “an opportunity to recognize the qualities of women in men’s football; that it works, as the saying goes – because there are always big concerns.” The former national striker has also already held negotiations with second and third division teams – but she never received a contract.
Red hair and speech impediments as criteria
Wübbenhorst had a similar experience when she once auditioned as a candidate for a traditional club in the third division. A year later, she spoke to the sporting director about the reasons for the rejection, “and he said that many things were important to him: Is the coach fat, is he thin? Does he have red hair? Does he squint a little? Does he have a speech impediment? Does he have a high or low voice? How does that affect the players? Does he have a walking problem?”
External characteristics do play a role, says 35-year-old Wübbenhorst, currently in charge of the Young Boys Bern women’s team. “Because that is often the first point of attack for criticism,” she says. “As a woman, you naturally have a few characteristics that are perceived differently from the outside. You are then reduced to that.”
Male decision-makers without courage
She returns to the decision-maker at the time, who gave her a deeply honest answer: “This sports director then said that a woman would offer him too much scope for attack – for sponsors, for players. He simply wanted to avoid the risk.”
Wübbenhorst complains that the decision-makers, who are mostly male, often lack courage, and that is what is needed to install a woman in top-level football. “Especially if the coach does not come from the club itself. Then it becomes more difficult to get all the decision-makers behind the idea of bringing in a female coach.”
Grings sees it similarly: “The sports management needs courage to even think about a female coach. On the other hand: Unfortunately, there are currently not many female coaches who could be asked for such positions.”
Applicants for top license missing
In the past ten years, there have been only nine participants in courses for the UEFA Pro Licence (the former football coaching licence), including Grings and Wübbenhorst. And for the past 2023/24 season and the upcoming 2024/25 season: exactly zero.
The number of applicants is also sobering. Only one person has expressed interest in the strictly limited places on the course, the DFB reports, “but unfortunately she does not meet the admission requirements and therefore was not admitted.” The name of the applicant: Sabrina Wittmann.
The A license, the precursor to the Pro license, presents a similarly bleak picture: out of six applicants, only one was accepted. Hardly any role models, a lack of access and various prejudices. The DFB, which wants to strengthen girls’ and women’s football in the long term, has a lot of material to cover in the training of female coaches.
“More offers must be created across the board, by the association, by the clubs,” demands Grings. Otherwise there will continue to be a shortage of skilled workers – also a well-known issue in schools.