At this year’s award ceremony of the German Football Ambassador e.V., the coach of FC Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp, prevailed in the main category against the Mongolian national coach Michael Weiß and Petra Landers, who is active in Zambia.
Marc-André ter Stegen of FC Barcelona won the public award in a thrilling finish ahead of Julian Gressel of Atlanta United and Leroy Sané of Manchester City. Several tens of thousands of fans voted for him in an online voting. The „blond angel“ Bernd Schuster received the prize of honor.
„This year’s top-class event at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin was opened by Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State for International Cultural Policy responsible for sports promotion, who represented Heiko Maas.“
The jury, which this year included Horst Hrubesch and Berti Vogts for the first time, nominated three football personalities for the main award, later to be won by Jürgen Klopp, Petra Landers and Michael Weiß, who contribute in completely different ways to Germany’s positive image in the world. Club President Roland Bischof, who visited all three nominees in their countries of assignment, explained: „Michael Weiß has been an ambassador for German football in Asia and Africa for 20 years, Petra Landers is involved in Zambia in an extraordinary way and Jürgen Klopp has really enchanted Liverpool in a way that Liverpool has not experienced in 40 years. All three deserve the highest recognition.“ The laudatory speech for Jürgen Klopp was held by the Managing Director of Borussia Dortmund, Hans-Joachim „Aki“ Watzke, in his usual relaxed manner.
The Spanish ambassador Ricardo Martinez held the laudation for the honorary prize winner Bernd Schuster, who has legendary status in Spain. He was the first of only two players worldwide to play for all three major Spanish clubs (Real, Atletico, Barca) and won numerous titles. The 1980 European champion was also mainly active in Spain as a coach, where he became Spanish champion again with Real Madrid. Bernd Schuster enjoyed his time in Berlin and was happy about his award with words of praise for the club: „A really great idea.“
Marc-André ter Stegen also lives in Spain, who was voted by the fans as the public winner in this year’s online voting. The FC Barcelona goalkeeper has been playing successfully and at the highest level for years. As the triple winner of 2015 is in the final phase of the season, he could only join in via video and thanked the fans from Barcelona. He will be presented with the award later.
As is customary with the German Football Ambassador, all winners and nominees again nominated charitable organisations for their prize money in order to support social projects they are committed to. Vice President and CSR expert Dr. Norbert Taubken, enthused: „That is one of the nicest things about our award! We are now already socially active in over 25 countries. Thanks to all those involved.“
In addition to an entertaining and interesting talk with „Aki“ Watzke and DFB vice-president Dr. Rainer Koch, moderated by kicker publisher Rainer Holzschuh, the German Football Ambassador had another surprise in store: „We want to get even more involved in women’s football in the future!
