Doris Fitschen: Ex-national player died at the age of 56

The former international Doris Fitschen is dead. Fitschen died “after a long and serious illness” on Saturday, March 15, 2025, it is said.

Fitschen was one of the best footballers and one of the greatest personalities in football in Germany, the DFB continued. Most recently, the former athlete worked as an overall coordinator in football at DFB and was responsible for the development and implementation of the strategy “Women in Football FF27”. Before that, from 2009 to 2016 she was a manager of the women’s national team, who became European champion twice during this time and Olympic champion in 2016.

Between 1986 and 2001 she was 144 times for the German national team. In 1989 she won the first international title at the European Championship in Germany with the team. Doris Fitsche became European champion four times, and at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney she won the bronze medal. With the TSV Siegen she also became German champion twice and won the DFB Cup once. With the 1st FFC Frankfurt, she won the “Double” from the championship and trophy in 1999 and a year later the DFB Cup.

DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said in the association’s announcement: “I am dismayed and very sad about Doris’s death. Our thoughts are with her family, all relatives and close friends. Doris is one of the formative figures of football in Germany.” As a player, she was “a leader, a strategist”. Also at the DFB, in her second career, she “preceded it, at the same time took everyone with them and promoted and argued with vehemence, competence and great empathy for the concerns of women’s football”.