Sabrina Wittmann has been appointed the permanent head coach of German third-tier club Ingolstadt, marking the first time a female coach has been given the role with a men’s team in the country’s top three national divisions.
The 32-year-old Wittmann was put in charge of Ingolstadt for its last four games of the season as interim coach and on Wednesday the club said she had been appointed on a permanent basis.
“When I took over the first team in May on an interim basis, I had hoped that it wouldn’t just be a short adventure,” Wittmann said in a statement.
“With every moment that I spent with the team after that, my wish to be allowed to stay long-term in this position grew stronger.”
Wittmann was unbeaten in her four games as interim coach with two wins and two draws, and her team won the regional Bavarian Cup to qualify for next season’s German Cup.
In November, Marie-Louise Eta became the first female assistant coach in the top-tier Bundesliga when she was appointed at Union Berlin. Female head coaches have also worked at German clubs in the regional fourth tier before.
The first woman to ever manage a professional men’s team at any level was Carolina Morace as she took charge of Italian Serie C side Viterbese.
However, she resigned from her position after just two matches as the president of the club interfered with the coaching staff she was allowed. Morace returned to the women’s game to take charge of the Italian and Trinidad and Tobago national teams, while he has also held roles at AC Milan, Lazio and London City Lionesses.
Helena Costa became the first woman to manage a professional men’s football team in France when she took charge of second tier Clermont Foot in the summer 2014. She also became the first female coach to manage a men’s team in the top two tiers of a major European league.
It was not Costa’s first role in the men’s game having taken charge of Benfica’s youth teams between 1997 and 2010.
However, Costa’s time at Clermont lasted just a month and left in June of the same year, claiming “total amateurism” and a “lack of respect” from the club hierarchy. She later took a scouting role at Eintracht Frankfurt and was most recently the Head of Scouting at Watford, leaving the role in December of last year.
Costa was replaced at Clermont Foot by another female manager in Corinne Diacre, who stayed in charge of the Ligue 2 club for three seasons, before becoming the French women’s national team manager.
And last summer Hannah Dingley became the first and only woman to be in charge of a men’s professional team in English football as she took caretaker charge of Forest Green Rovers last summer.
Hannah Dingley became the first woman to lead an elite English men’s football team when she took interim charge of Forest Green Rovers. She believes that progress is being made to create a pathway for females in the men’s game
Dingley was given the role after holding the position of academy manager at the club and took charge of the team for 13 days before Dave Horseman came in as the permanent manager. He was sacked five months later .
