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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Andy Brassell

Sabrina Wittmann: ‘I’ll always be the first woman coaching a men’s team – but I want to be seen as a coach’

Sabrina Wittmann, head coach of FC Ingolstadt
Sabrina Wittmann, head coach of FC Ingolstadt Photograph: FC Ingolstadt 04

Home is indeed where the heart is. On Friday Sabrina Wittmann signed a new deal to stay at FC Ingolstadt, continuing a partnership whose roots go back nearly two decades but which became of wider public interest when the third-tier club appointed her as the first female coach of a German professional football team in summer 2024.

There is no tokenism in the club’s choice, underlined not only by the contract extension but by the 34-year-old’s recent completion of her coaching pro licence, awarded to her just over a month ago. “I’ll always be the first woman in Germany coaching a professional men’s team,” Wittmann says, “but I want to be seen as a coach.

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