“Unfortunately, three of our players are unavailable,” says Splinter, who started as the team’s assistant coach in 2010 and has been head coach since 2018. “Actually, we are eleven.” In the Special Olympics, the football competitions take place on a small field, with seven players per team.
The team has an appointment with Celia Sasic (34) today. From 2005 to 2015 she was a national soccer player, is two-time European champion (2009 and 2013), Champions League winner (2015), top scorer at the 2015 World Cup and since 2022 DFB Vice President for Diversity and Diversity.
Sasic, who attended the National Games of the Special Olympics in Berlin last year as a spectator, is clearly looking forward to the event. “I attended a few events last year, including table tennis and handball. The atmosphere was really impressive,” she says.
The joy is mutual: “It’s great that we can meet a real star today,” says Mireille Vanfürt (42). She has been on the team with her sister Elisabeth Woyke (40) since 2010. The two have a mental and a psychological disability, they say: “As a child, I was diagnosed with ADD, the attention deficit disorder,” says Vanfürt: “My foster mother said I should rather do sports than take medication. That’s why I started playing football when I was three years old. The sport is really good for me.”
“Many don’t trust us to do that.”
Both she and her sister live largely independently. “We have our own apartments. Although part of the assisted living, we actually do our thing completely. And we earn our own money.” The sisters are not active on the first labor market, they work in a workshop. “You’re often pigeonholed,” says Vanfürt, “unfortunately people don’t even know that we do really great and important things. For example small motors for garage doors and spare parts for cars from all over the world. Many don’t trust us to do that.”
Since their handicaps are not immediately obvious, the sisters themselves rarely have to contend with prejudice. “People who have Down syndrome or are in a wheelchair, for example, have it much more difficult. Fear of contact and the division in society between people with disabilities and people without disabilities is a big issue for us,” says Woyke, adding: “Something has to change.”
There are no fears of contact at the DFB that day. Sasic gets on well with women straight away. They all have one thing in common: the love of football.
Nicola Brings (37) is captain and the veteran of the team. For her, meeting Celia Sasic is a reunion. 16 years ago Brings was at the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai and then also attended the Olympic Games in Beijing. There she met the DFB women, who won bronze at the time. Among them: Celia Sasic. “I was really young back then,” she says with a laugh, “I can still remember being really excited. I was just 20, it was going to China, it was the Olympics. They really are something very special. I’m sure you feel the same way about the World Games.”
Excitement and pressure, the Special Olympics soccer players know that too. Suddenly they are in the spotlight. For the documentary “Now! We! Special Olympics in Berlin”, which will be broadcast on MagentaTV on June 4th, has been accompanied by the camera for a few weeks. They will represent Germany in a little over a month, of course a medal at the World Games is the big dream.
The situation is unfamiliar for the Special Olympics footballers, who not all can handle easily. While it’s not a problem for most of them, there are also players on the team who have to learn to cope with the attention that’s suddenly being thrown at them.
The women therefore want to know from Celia Sasic: How did she deal with external pressure, stress and expectations? “When I was unsure, I always tried to be aware of what I can do,” says Sasic: “That I’m good on the pitch. what my strengths are That’s what I focused on. You also know that you are good. Otherwise you wouldn’t be on this team. You don’t have to work miracles, you don’t have to be exceptional in every game. And you are not alone in football. The support, the backing of others – that is an important factor.”
The soccer players definitely have team spirit. They get along well, support each other and sometimes meet privately. Common experiences, like today at the DFB with Celia Sasic, also weld together. On the way to the big goal: a medal in the Special Olympics World Games.
