Female coach Sabrina Wittmann blazing a lonely trail in men's soccer in Germany

BERLIN (AP) — As the first and only woman to be appointed head coach of a men's professional soccer team in Germany, Sabrina Wittmann faces more pressure and scrutiny than most of her counterparts.

Wittmann has been the coach of her hometown club, third-division Ingolstadt, since May 2024, when she took over for the last four games of the season. Ingolstadt didn’t lose any and won the Bavarian Cup, and Wittmann made history when she was given the job on a permanent basis that June.

“I opened the door a little for women. And at the beginning I was honestly afraid of closing the door as quickly (again),” Wittmann told journalists in an online call on Friday.

“The whole pressure which I felt at the beginning, I mean, you get used to it," she said. "The best answer to all this is right now I get asked a lot more questions about football than at the beginning. And that’s something I love.”

The 34-year-old Wittmann is focused on herself, her strengths, and what she wants to achieve.

“I wanted to be the best because of me, not because of everybody else … that makes it really natural for me, and authentic. If a woman tries to be a man, or tries to be at the same stage, it’s probably unnatural,” she said.

As a coach she feels it’s “people management” more than anything else, and the hardest part comes with making unpopular decisions. Empathy goes a long way toward easing tensions while demanding the best.

“I feel really accepted. I always felt accepted,” she said, crediting her club and the support she receives from managing director Dietmar Beiersdorfer.

But Wittmann has also experienced negative comments on social media and even in stadiums.

“I try not to be focused on that stuff, because if it comes down to a conversation, positive or negative, nine out of ten are really positive and one is negative,” she said. “The loudest one is sometimes 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 bigger than they are.”

Wittmann did not start playing soccer until she was 14 years old. She went to Kentucky in the United States as an exchange student, and found work as an assistant coach there through her host mother, a schoolteacher.

“I just fell in love with this job or this part of being in football. Then I went back (to Germany). I mean, I was still playing and being a coach at the same time,” she said.

The game is much more physical in the U.S. compared to Germany, Wittmann found.

“I’d never been in the gym before, so I went to the U.S. we had like gym every day, something we didn’t do in Germany,” she said. “When I came back playing soccer here the girls told me that I play a lot more physical than I did before.”

On Friday, Ingolstadt announced it was extending Wittman’s contract. Entering the weekend, Ingolstadt was 11th in the 20-team division before hosting Verl on Sunday, far from the relegation and promotion places.

“We did a good job in the last two years even if we didn’t get up to the second division, but I think we need to build up something for years,” Wittman said, stressing the importance of long-term planning. “We need to grow healthily.”

Ingolstadt was relegated from the Bundesliga in 2017 and from the second division in 2019. It was promoted back to the second division in 2021 but went straight back down the following season.

Wittmann, who’d watched Ingolstadt in the Bundesliga from the stands as a fan, said promotion had probably come too soon.

“I think the last few years, especially with Didi Beiersdorfer, it was about building something,” she said, pointing out that the team lost 19 players last summer. “Not in a sad way, but (because) we developed players who went up to the second league or even the first league. I’m a youth coach and first of all, it’s developing players. The better the player gets, the better the team is at the end.”

The contract extension comes just over a month after Wittmann got her pro license, the German soccer federation’s highest coaching credential.

“It was a big dream someday having the pro license because it means that you are able to train every team on this planet,” she said.

In 2023, Union Berlin’s Marie-Louise Eta became the Bundesliga’s first female assistant coach, and in 2017 Bibiana Steinhaus became the first female referee in the Bundesliga, but otherwise there have been few breakthroughs for women in men’s professional soccer in Germany, while there are plenty of men involved in women’s soccer. Christian Wück, a man, is coach of the Germany women’s team.

Wittmann acknowledged it was “probably hard to find” decision-makers in the 36 clubs of Germany’s men’s first two divisions who would employ a woman as head coach, but she said she believes it will happen.

“I had a lot of conversations with other decision-makers from other clubs,” she said. “I mean, there’s a difference (between) talking to me and telling me I’m doing a good job and taking the decision. I know that’s gonna be difficult.”

For now, all her focus is on her hometown club.

“One day it’s probably going to happen and I have to leave here, hopefully because I’m able to coach an even higher-ranked team,” Wittmann said. “I do believe that’s going to be hard. I know that, and it’s not going to be easy, but I think five years, nine, ten years, whatever, I hope that things will change, and not only for me, but for every other woman who wants to be a coach.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - Coach Sabrina Wittmann from Ingolstadt reacts during the 3. Liga soccer match between FC Ingolstadt and SV Waldhof Mannheim on May 5, 2024. (Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP, File)

FILE - Coach Sabrina Wittmann gives instructions during the 3. Liga soccer match between FC Ingolstadt and SV Waldhof Mannheim, in Ingolstadt, on May 5, 2024. (Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday will join grieving families at Dover Air Force Base at the dignified transfer for the six U.S. soldiers killed in the war in the Middle East.

The dignified transfer, a ritual that returns the remains of U.S. service members killed in action, is considered one of the most somber duties of any commander in chief. During his first term, Trump said bearing witness to the transfer was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.

Trump, speaking at a summit of Latin American leaders in Miami before his trip to Delaware, said the fallen service members were heroes “coming home in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home.” He said it was “a very sad situation” and he pledged to keep American war deaths “to a minimum.”

Those killed in action were Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California; Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist.

The six members of the Army Reserve, who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait, were all from the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa, which provides food, fuel, water and ammunition, transport equipment and supplies. They died just one day after the U.S. and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran.

“These soldiers engaged in the most noble mission: protecting their fellow Americans and keeping our homeland secure,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a combat veteran, said after the six were identified. “Our nation owes them an incredible debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.”

During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to an awaiting vehicle to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.

Amor’s husband, Joey Amor, said earlier this week that she had been scheduled to return home to him and their two children within days.

“You don’t go to Kuwait thinking something’s going to happen, and for her to be one of the first – it hurts,” Joey Amor said.

O’Brien had served in the Army Reserve for nearly 15 years, according to his LinkedIn account, and his aunt said in a post on Facebook that O’Brien “was the sweetest blue-eyed, blonde farm kid you’d ever know. He is so missed already.”

Marzan’s sister described him in a Facebook post as a “strong leader” and loving husband, father and brother.

“My baby brother, you are loved and I will hold onto all our memories and cherish them always in my heart,” Elizabeth Marzan wrote.

Coady was among the youngest people in his class, trained to troubleshoot military computer systems, but he impressed his instructors, his father, Andrew Coady, told The Associated Press.

“He trained hard, he worked hard, his physical fitness was important to him. He loved being a soldier,” Coady said. “He was also one of the most kindest people you would ever meet, and he would do anything and everything for anyone.”

Khork's family described him as “the life of the party” who was known for his “infectious spirit” and “generous heart” and who had wanted to serve in the military since childhood.

“That commitment helped shape the course of his life and reflected the deep sense of duty that was always at the core of who he was,” according to a statement from his mother, Donna Burhans, his father, James Khork, and his stepmother, Stacey Khork.

Tietjens, who came from a military family, previously served alongside his father in Kuwait. When he returned home in February 2010, he reunited with his overjoyed wife in a local church’s gym.

Tietjens’ cousin Kaylyn Golike asked for prayers, especially for Tietjens’ 12-year-old son, wife and parents, as they navigate “unimaginable loss.”

Trump most recently traveled to Dover in December to honor two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter who were killed in an ambush attack in the Syrian desert. He attended dignified transfers several times during his first term, including for a Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan and for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.

This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Maj. Jeffrey R. O'Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa, in this May 16, 2025, photo. (U.S. Amy via AP)

This combination of images provided by the U.S. Army taken on May 16, 2025 shows, from left, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Army via AP)