Speaking at a media round table, Ingolstadt head coach Sabrina Wittmann discussed what it is like being a woman coaching within men’s professional football.
In 2024, Ingolstadt fired head coach Michael Köllner and replaced him with under-19 head coach Wittmann, initially on a temporary basis until the end of the season, where she won the Bavarian Verbandspokal to qualify the team for the DFB Pokal the following season.
The Ingolstadt native would then be given the job on a permanent basis that summer, and during her spell in the dugout, they finished 10th and currently sit 12th in the 3.Liga. Ingolstadt have recently extended her contract too.
The appointment of Wittmann made her the first-ever female professional coach in German football, and as of right now, she is the only women men’s professional coach. Following in the footsteps of previous head coaches Hannah Dingley (ex-Forest Green Rovers, England), Corinne Diarce (ex-Clermont Foot, France) and Carolina Morace (ex-Viterbese, Italy), while Marie-Louise Eta has previously shared interim coaching duties at Union Berlin.
Sabrina Wittmann on coaching in men’s football:
When asked what it is like being a woman coaching within a heavy male dominant industry, Sabrina Wittmann said:
“I mean, as a coach, I grew up only with men, so I’m really used to it, to be honest, and I think I am a strong personality and, I’m confident with myself. Not always, but I mean, everyone, who is always confident with his self. So it’s nothing special. I knew I wanted to be the best because of me, not because of everybody else. So that was probably a good fun to not overreact anything. So that makes it really natural for me and authentic…I mean, if I lead my team, not harder because I’m a woman. I’m who I am. So sometimes I’m probably more soft than a man.
But I mean at the under-19 when I went back, a father told me that, the strength of a woman is something I should not lose because men know about it, but the mother, the sister and stuff. So I try to be really authentic and natural to my team, and that works. I don’t need to be extra hard or anything. I mean, I’m consistent. That’s something I have always been, but I would’ve been consistent to a women team as well. So it’s nothing I make a difference out of it. So I feel really accepted. I always felt accepted.
Sabrina Wittmann coaching Ingolstadt during a training session. Credit: Ingolstadt 04
However, as every coach experiences, it is not always positive, and one example given is that of a referee, Bibiana Steinhaus. Like Wittmann, she is a trailblazer herself in the fact that she was the first woman to referee in the Bundesliga and officiated her first game in 2017 between Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen, whilst she has also received abuse even from players such as Karim Demirbay.
On Steinhaus and the abuse she has received, Wittmann said:
On the other hand, that’s true, I know Bibi Steinhaus is a referee, and that’s even a harder position than I have because everybody has something against you. It’s the one or the other team and the spectators, it doesn’t matter if you’re a woman or a man, but I’ve had a negative experience, stuff going on in social media and stuff, or in the stadium, even stadiums where people yell at me or anything. I mean, it’s nothing, I don’t try to be focused on that stuff because, if it comes down to the conversation, positive or negative out of 10, nine are really positive and one’s negative. So, I think it’s the loudest one, sometimes is the negative one, the most negative one, but there are nine people who think it’s a good thing. So I try to focus on that and not make things”
If people like Wittmann continue to succeed for Ingolstadt and Eta at Union, they may open the door for more women to begin coaching within the men’s German football pyramid.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
