Television: Monica Lierhaus is back on free TV

“Let’s talk about football and the national team,” says Monica Lierhaus. This is the subject that she loves, that moves her. On June 20th, the sports presenter will return to familiar territory as she once did for ARD. This time for the RTL channel, which is broadcasting the DFB team’s international match against Colombia. Lierhaus will be in Gelsenkirchen alongside moderator Florian König. And she has questions – especially for national coach Hansi Flick.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” says the native of Hamburg. “If I’m allowed to work, then I’m fine.” She sees herself primarily as a journalist and would like to be perceived as such. After her brain operation in January 2009, the coma that lasted several months and the serious consequences, she did not hide, appeared in public, gave interviews and wrote a book. The illness is an essential part of her life, but not Lierhaus’s whole life.

She conducts interviews at the Special Olympics

RTL has been her employer since April. The broadcaster brought Lierhaus back to free TV, as a reporter and presenter; only once for a year. Inclusion will be a key theme. Because apart from the international match, Lierhaus will also be in action this month at the Special Olympics from June 17th to 25th in Berlin. RTL is one of the media partners of the major sporting event for 7,000 people with intellectual disabilities.

Lierhaus will be interviewing at the Special Olympics. In the run-up to this, she already visited some active people. In a weekly series on “Punkt 12”, Lierhaus presents “everyday heroes”, as the broadcaster puts it. She will also work at RTL as an inclusion consultant. According to RTL, further live appearances at sporting events are planned.

The former ARD “Sportschau” moderator” worked in the meantime for the subscription channel Sky and spoke to sports greats such as Dirk Nowitzki, Niki Lauda or Jürgen Klinsmann. At RTL, Lierhaus is again facing a larger audience.

The attention at RTL is great

With the well-known journalist, the broadcaster draws attention to itself and the topics of sustainability, diversity, equality and inclusion. And Lierhaus can once again present herself to a larger public as a reporter. “The attention is certainly greater, that’s clear,” she says. But she doesn’t get nervous: “Not at all.”

She likes to talk about her work, and Lierhaus was impressed by the encounters for the Special Olympics. There was the soccer player, for example, who barely uttered a word when she wanted to interview him, says Lierhaus. “Once he was on the pitch, he took the lead and gave orders and suddenly he was the conductor.” It was very exciting for her to see what sport can do.

Lierhaus speaks to the national coach

It doesn’t matter whether it’s world champion coach Joachim Löw, the captain of the Special Olympics football team or the severely visually impaired young woman who gives cosmetic tips on the Internet – for Lierhaus the preparation for the interviews is always the same. She tries to approach people who are unfamiliar with the media, “because I know that if someone comes along who may be well-known, it will intimidate one or the other a little.”

That won’t happen if she meets Hansi Flick and the national team on June 20th. “To be honest, I feel like the national team is lacking in leaders,” she says. Players like world champions Philipp Lahm or Bastian Schweinsteiger are not in sight a year before the European Championships at home. Therefore, Lierhaus’ question to Flick is: “How can you make players become leaders?” After the sobering 3: 3 against Ukraine in Bremen on Monday evening, Monica Lierhaus is not the only one who is very excited about Flick’s answer.

Announcement RTL – April 2023 Homepage Monica Lierhaus