Former national player Jimmy Hartwig has announced his candidacy for the position of President of the German Football Association (DFB). “I want to be president of the German Football Association,” the 66-year-old told Welt news channel. It is time for a dark-skinned player, a former national player who has seen all the ups and downs. He knows what makes amateurs and youth teams ticked”.
Former German Federation President Fritz Keeler resigned in mid-May, and Vice Presidents Rainer Koch and Peter Peters will chair the world’s largest sports federation on a temporary basis until the next Bundestag.
Hartwig’s candidacy is supported by Dagmar Freijtag (SPD), president of the Bundestag Sports Committee. “Jimmy Hartwig is one of the most prominent players in our country’s national team for many reasons, and not just because of his footballing skills,” he said Friday. It is high time, however, that people of color also become a norm in the presidency of our sports federations.
Three German titles and two cancers
As a player, Hartwig was a three-time German champion with Hamburger SV, and in 1983 he won the European Cup with the Hanseatic League.
After a career, he survived two cancers and became a stage actor. In addition to Hartwig, former national goalkeeper Katja Krause is also being traded as a presidential candidate, and several other celebrities such as German Football League director Christian Seifert or Philipp Lahm, former national team captain and current tournament director for Euro 2024, have previously canceled the vacancy.