Deutscher Fussball Botschafter (German Football Ambassador) Award Ceremony 2019 at the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. (Photo courtesy: Deutscher Fussball Botschafter)
The 2019 German Football Ambassador (Deutscher Fussball Botschafter) awards ceremony took place at the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) in Berlin last Wednesday.
Liverpool FC coach Jürgen Klopp beat Mongolian national coach Michael Weiß and Petra Landers, who is engaged in Zambia, in the main category “Coach of the Year”.
Marc-André ter Stegen from FC Barcelona won the audience award in an exciting finish ahead of Julian Gressel from Atlanta United and Leroy Sané from Manchester City.
Former Germany and Real Madrid legend Bernd Schuster received the honorary prize. The laudatory speech for the 1980 European Champion, who enjoys cult status in Spain, was given by the Spanish Ambassador to Germany, H.E. Ricardo Martínez.
As is usual with the German Football Ambassador, all winners and nominees again named charitable organisations for their prize money in order to promote social projects for which they are committed.
The award ceremony in the German capital welcomed various high-profile stakeholders from German football and politics such as Borussia Dortmund’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, Minister of State for International Cultural Policy Michelle Müntefering, amongst many others.
The event was hosted by Sky Sports News HD presenter Sylvia Walker, while kicker publisher Rainer Holzschuh moderated an interesting panel discussion between Hans-Joachim Watzke and German FA (DFB) Vice-President Dr. Reinhard Koch.
The charitable association Deutscher Fußball Botschafter e.V. annually awards the prize for a significant contribution to the positive image of Germany in the world, which is linked to the support of a charitable institution.