Margret Kratz is the name of the new German Football Ambassador 2023, who should have received her award directly from the hands of the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who had also prepared a speech, a t the award ceremony at the Goethe Institute in Sydney. However, due to a change in travel plans at short notice as a result of a technical incident during the journey, Consul General Felix Schwarz took over the representation on site. The laudation for th e current Hungarian national coach was held by Monika Staab, who is currently developing women’s soccer in Saudi Arabia and who, as a pioneer in this field, has already been a football ambassador herself (2014).
Margret Kratz was visibly happy about the award: “I thank the jury for the choice and am very happy about the appreciation of my work. I’m also pleased that Dzsenifer Marozsan won the audience award after I was allowed to train her at the time.”
Olympique Lyon’s exceptional player Dzsenifer Marozsan, who was recently voted by fans narrowly ahead of Melanie Leupholz for the Public Award, was the second woman to receive the German Football Ambassador 2023 award in the Women.Football.Global. theme year. She also sent a video message to the surprise o f a visibly moved Margret Kratz.
The president of the non profit association German Football Ambassadors e.V., Roland Bischof, was also very pleased about the planned visit of the Foreign Minister with regard to the long standing partnership with the Germa n Foreign Office: “Mrs. Baerbock wanted to set a special sign of attention to the extraordinary merits of the award winners through her personal appearance, who each in their own way, but all together contribute to the positive development of women’s football.” He added: “In the past, all previous holders of office, including the current President Frank Walter Steinmeier, Sigmar Gabriel and Heiko Maas, have attended the award ceremony in Berlin in person. All the sadder that the minister was now unable to enrich our event due to the flight breakdown.”
Nevertheless, well known personalities came to congratulate the winner in the now smaller circle. Whether it was Olympic champions Tabea Kemme and Jo sephine Henning, the latter herself once a student of the new German football ambassador, Doris Fitschen, responsible for women’s football at the German Football Federation , or former national player Alexander Baumjohann, who now works in the management of Sydney FC they all came to congratulate the lucky winner. Even Hungarian Football Association was represented by the sports director Dr. Robert Barczi as well as the women’s
representative Dorottya Denes.
This year’s winners stand for high commitment and sustainable merits. And not only on the pitch. Margret Kratz has already worked in Namibia or Bolivia and supports the “Café con leche” project in the Dominican Republic as a patron, for example. Supporting social projects is also the idea behind the Ambassador Award, where th e prize money has always been donated. Forty projects in over thirty countries have now been supported.
This year, a new system is taking effect. In order to better manage the sustainability of the aid, the association enlisted the support of long time par tner Common Goal and also joined the organization a few days ago.
This year’s prize money from the winners will thus go to the inclusive projects “Girl Power” and “Futbalo Girls”. Selected by the players’ council of the DFB national team, who themselves wanted to donate 1% of their bonuses at the World Cup. Due to the early elimination and the associated loss of bonuses, the prize m oney of the new female football ambassadors now helps all the more.
