Sabrina Wittmann broke a new barrier in German football

At 32 years old, Sabrina Wittmann has again fallen a new barrier. The coach became the first woman to sit on a bench in German men’s professional football on Sunday. Sabrina made her debut on the Ingolstadt bench in the match that ended 1-1 in the third Bundesliga, an unprecedented milestone and another step in the unstoppable path of women in football.

There are several antecedents in Germany, where the case of Marie-Louise Eta stands out, who became the second in Union Berlin after the dismissal of Urs Fischer and his assistants and became the bench not only in the Bundesliga, but also in the Champions League.

In the Bundesliga, due to the sanction of head coach Nenad Bjelica, he managed a match against Darmstadt, although as a team with other assistants.

Other examples in Germany are from regional leagues.

“Women have had the right to vote for several years now. It is good that football, where there are many clichés, shows that many prejudices are not true,” said Ingolstadt captain Lukas Fröde after the match.

The Munich newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung” commented on Fröde’s statement, pointing out that it says something about football that, between the moment when women’s suffrage was approved and the moment of Wittmann’s debut, 106 years must pass.

“No one gave him this chance. And we quickly realized that he is a great coach,” said Fröde.

The scorer of the Ingolstadt goal, Sebastian Groening, said that in the modern world there is no need to pay attention to whether the team is led by a male or female coach.

“Sabrina has good qualities. It doesn’t matter if she’s a girl or a boy,” he said.

Wittmann, 32, previously managed Ingolstadt’s youth ranks and has now taken over the first team, initially on a temporary basis until the end of the season.

Wittmann replaced Michael Köllner, whose contract was terminated by the club by mutual agreement as it was considered that the team was retiring from the sport.