Sabrina Wittmann is forging a new path in soccer as she leads third division men’s side Ingolstadt in Germany

Something special is happening in German soccer as FC Ingolstadt are finding stability under the leadership of Sabrina Wittmann, the first woman to coach a men’s team in Germany’s professional divisions. Rewarded with a contract extension, she’s building something special, and while the club may be in a different place than their time in the Bundesliga under Ralph Hasenhüttl, Wittmann staving off relegation out of the professional tiers and ensuring that the club has a chance to fight back to the top flights is no small thing..

Having spent most of her time around the club both as a player and with the coaching staff, there’s a deep care in managing her hometown club, but that doesn’t mean that Wittmann doesn’t have ambitions of moving higher. The goal is that both her, and the club can do that together.

“Something very valuable has been created here, especially in recent months. The foundation of mutual trust, hard work, and a special sense of togetherness is in place. Now we want to continue to strengthen this stability and follow the path we’ve started consistently,” Wittmann said about the extension. “The work here brings me enormous joy, and I feel great trust from the club. I especially want to highlight the incredible collaboration with Didi Beiersdorfer, my coaching and staff team, and the squad. That’s why this contract extension simply feels right.”

A German coach with Kentucky roots

Before getting to the future, it’s good to roll back the clock to Kentucky of all places, where Wittmann got the itch for coaching. While there, her host mother was a middle school teacher and needed an assistant coach, which Wittmann helped out with, and the rest is history, with her helping out with coaching roles when she returned to Germany before taking an interim role as head coach with Ingolstadt in 2024, before being named the full-time head coach later in that same year.

While it was a historic moment, it’s not one that felt like one for Wittmann due to the level of comfort at the club, but it doesn’t mean that it didn’t come without pressure due to Wittmann knowing the stakes that came with being a trailblazer in her field.

“I can remember my first year, I knew I was the only woman, and Ingolstadt isn’t in the middle of Germany, to be honest, especially in soccer and football. So when I started practicing over here, there were so many cameras and media, and I recognized that’s something special over here. I knew I opened the door a little for women, and at the beginning, I was a little afraid of closing the door quicker than I would love to.

“So that was something at the beginning, but I told myself, and with the people around me who have my back, so let’s just do it. And the pressure that I felt at the beginning, you get used to it. So when we lose three games in a row two years ago, it has been extremely hard but by now it’s something that you get used to it’s the spectators and media and stuff, it’s normal right now and the best answer to all this is that now I get asked questions about football more than at the beginning and that’s something that I love.”

Doing anything new, those feelings are understandable, and they’re why a support system is critical. Being responsible for the fate of a club while going into uncharted territory is a serious challenge, and the fact that Wittmann was able to navigate that and move through while also earning her UEFA Pro Coaching License is nothing short of remarkable. Achieving that license was a life goal for her, and now she has the challenge of figuring out what her next goal is. Short term is simple with having a team to keep an eye on, but there’s always something to strive toward.

In soccer, the next things that teams always want to do is emulate those who are doing well. Former USMNT and Bayern Munich manager Jurgen Klinsmann thinks it may not be long until the next Wittmann is coaching. “I think it’s not far away, you know? From a talented, very talented female coach coaching a men’s team in the first Bundesliga. She’s doing a fantastic job; she’s now in the third division, but in Germany, the first, second, and third divisions are highly professionally driven, so it’s already a huge job on her hands that she’s going through right now,” Klinsmann said.

“Now she’s gaining experience, week in, week out, and she proves her point that she’s a very, very good coach. So I think that process will go organically in favor of all female coaches, you know, down the road. It just needs to have more people being courageous enough to say, ‘Let’s try it out, let’s give it a shot, and let’s do it.’ There are a lot of good female coaches out there. And we went through that process now over the last few years with female referees. Now, the female referees are everywhere within FIFA, UEFA, and the domestic leagues all over the world. And I think we will go into that process with coaches as well.”

Describing her own style as “intensive football,” Wittmann takes influence from names who you’d expect, such as Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Julian Nagelsmann, and Thomas Tuchel, but expressed that it’s critical to also develop her own style especially at Ingolstadt, where player turnover is high, and she may not have similar technical aspects of those in higher leagues. With her experience in the youth ranks, this isn’t a new challenge, and it’s one of many that she has taken in stride while managing her hometown club, which also brings responsibility.

It’s more than just a coaching role; this is a club that she cares for and has been involved with for more than 20 years, so the club’s success is something that she’d want even if she isn’t the coach there. Being focused on being the best coach that she can be, the rest will fall into place behind Wittmann’s leadership, because while this may be something that feels natural, considering the lack of other women in her role, the job that she’s doing is something that clubs globally will be keeping an eye on as soccer continues to evolve.