Ea woman who coaches a men’s soccer team? Where is that? In Hesse at the FSG Bessingen/Ettingshausen/Langsdorf. Silja Römer saved the kickers of the three villages in the Gießen district from relegation from the district league and is also looking after the team accordingly in the current season. Römer is a pioneer in soccer, possibly the only woman in Hesse to lead a men’s team.
The players praise their boss in the highest tones, and the Hessian Football Association (HFV) expressly welcomes Römer’s commitment. “Competence should decide, not gender. Silja is a great trainer,” says Dirk Reimöller, the sporting director of the HFV. “As far as I know, she is the first and only trainer in Hesse to look after a men’s team, a pioneer,” he says, while at the same time wondering why this is still the big exception. “Many women’s teams are coached by men. Why not the other way around?” Reimöller knows what he’s talking about, after all he’s also Vice President of the Association of German Football Instructors. Among its 5300 members – the degree of organization is around 75 percent – there are only around 100 women, who also mostly take care of the offspring.
