Esther Sedlaczek: How she gets her children excited about the European Championships

It starts on Friday evening: The European Football Championship in Germany starts with the opening match of the DFB team against Scotland in Munich. ARD presenter Esther Sedlaczek (38) will also be reporting from the sold-out stadiums in the coming days – sometimes again in the dream team with football legend Bastian Schweinsteiger (39). In an interview with the news agency spot on news, she spoke about her thoughts on the European Championship ahead of the tournament. She had been looking forward to it for a long time, but the real excitement only rises when the season with the Bundesliga and Champions League is over, says Sedlaczek: “Then my focus will be on the European Championship.”

The mother of a five-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son also revealed that she has had the sticker book for the European Championships at home for some time. In her opinion, sticking stickers on it is a “wonderful activity for the whole family” to “awaken interest and enthusiasm for the European Championships” in her children in particular. For her personally, the fact that the tournament is taking place in Germany is “a great advantage in terms of organization” for her family: “As a mother of two, I can almost always sleep in my own bed.” This makes things a lot easier. The disadvantage, however, is that she would like to get to know new stadiums, which is not possible this year. In general, however, she prepares for the games in the same way as she usually does: “The venue does not play a decisive role.”

That’s why Esther Sedlaczek is looking forward to Bastian Schweinsteiger

Sedlaczek, a big Hertha BSC fan, can also still remember her first stadium experience with the DFB team very well: “That was the legendary game at the 2006 World Cup between Germany and Argentina in the quarter-finals.” At the time, she was a 20-year-old in the Berlin Olympic Stadium and Argentina was the big favorite to win: “You can certainly imagine how excited I was when it went to penalties and Germany finally won.”

Of course, Sedlaczek is also “totally” looking forward to seeing her colleague Schweinsteiger again, with whom she has been in front of the camera since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and has received many positive reactions since then: “We just get on very well and like each other.” For her, the football world champion is an entertainer who makes things easy with his manner. Incidentally, her favorites for a triumph at the 2024 European Championship are France and England. She does not currently trust the German team to win the title: “Even though I very much hope that the team stays in the tournament as long as possible. And with a home European Championship, you never know how things will turn out.”