It is a first in German professional football and a surprise shortly before the end of the season: Sabrina Wittmann, U19 coach at FC Ingolstadt, will take over the Schanzer men’s team, which is in 11th place in the third division, until the end of the season. The third division team parted ways with head coach Michael Köllner, who took over the Donaustädter team a year ago.
Her long-time assistant coach Fabian Reichler is at Wittmann’s side. Together with him and the previous coaching team around Julian Kolbeck and Maniyel Nergiz, who was a game analyst at VfL Osnabrück under the then head coach Daniel Scherning, the native of Ingolstadt is temporarily responsible for the four remaining games of the professional team. On Sunday (7.30 p.m.) she will make her debut in the third division against Waldhof Mannheim.
At the same time, she continues to be responsible for “football development” at the club. Last weekend, Wittmann celebrated the runner-up championship in the A-Junior Bundesliga South/Southwest with the Schanzer U19 offspring, whom she has looked after since the 2021/22 season. The 32-year-old has been working at FC Ingolstadt in various positions since 2009: first she was a coach at the Audi Schanzer football school and three years later she was responsible for the U15 women’s section. Until 2018 she worked as a head coach in the basic and advanced areas (U10 to U14).
Sabrina Wittmann followed the game as U19 coach for the Ingolstadt team. Photo: Imago/Stefan Bösl
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In the 2018/2019 season she was in charge of the A-Junior Bundesliga for the first time as assistant coach to Roberto Pätzold. The Upper Bavarian then spent a year with the FCI’s U16 and U17 youth teams, and at the same time she also acted as assistant coach for the German U16 junior national team. Now the A license holder is taking over the third division professionals – this is allowed until the end of the season because the FCI is taking advantage of the 15-day period set out in the statutes, within which a team can also be temporarily supported by non-football teacher license holders. License may be maintained. Currently, Wittmann is only allowed to work long-term with her training up to the regional league and 2nd women’s Bundesliga.
Grings and Wübbenhorst as pioneers
After Inka Grings (SV Straelen) and Imke Wübbenhorst (Sportfreunde Lotte), Wittmann is the third coach to lead a team from the first four men’s leagues. In November, Marie-Louise Eta was an interim assistant coach at first division club Union Berlin together with former VfL head coach Marco Grote, before the Berliners hired Nenad Bjelica as their new head coach after Urs Fischer was fired.
Compared to Wittmann, Eta and Wübbenhorst have even completed the football teacher training course (UEFA Pro license). Wübbenhorst is currently the head coach of the BSC Young Boys Women. In Switzerland she and her team took fourth place in the table and thus qualified for the playoffs. The quarter-final first leg against the women of GC Zurich ended 1-1, now the second game follows this weekend.
Imke Wübbenhorst has been the coach of the BSC Young Boys Women since July 2022. Photo: Imago/Just Pictures
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Experiences in Cologne, Lotte and Cloppenburg
Before her involvement in Switzerland, she gained experience at many clubs. In the 2021/2022 season, Wübbenhorst took the position of assistant analysis coach at Viktoria Köln under head coach Olaf Janßen for one year. Before that, she coached the current regional league team Sportfreunde Lotte for eight months until the chapter ended in December 2020. At the end of 2018, Wübbenhorst had already taken over the men’s team of the then upper division club BV Cloppenburg for six months.