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This is the well -known mother of Mats Hummels
Updated on June 10th, 2025 – 5:41 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Mats Hummels is on the pitch for the last time on Sunday, his face probably knows pretty much every football fan, but his mother Ulla Holthoff is also no stranger.
Sport has always been part of everyday life in the Hummels family. The most famous family member is Mats. The ex-international (78 caps) was one of the best German central defenders over many years and celebrated his greatest sporting success in 2014 with the world championship title. The last time he is on the pitch for AS Roma on Sunday, after which the central defender will end his career. His brother Jonas made it to the 3rd league, where he played for SpVgg Unterhaching. Since 2016 he has been an expert and co-commentator at the DAZN streaming service. In addition, the Hummels brothers have been operating the sports podcast “difficult” alone since 2019.
Not only Mats and Jonas Hummels are on the move, but also the parents of the two. Father Hermann was active as a football coach. At FC Bayern Munich he worked as a young coordinator from 1995 to 2012, before that he trained FSV Mainz 05 in the 1994/95 season. Mother Ulla successfully played water polo at SC Rote Earth, studied sports science and became sports journalist.
After a traineeship and some time in print journalism, Holthoff received an offer from ZDF in 1989. She never wanted to watch TV, as Holthoff explained in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in 2014: “The industry always seemed too superficial and shaped by vanity.” In 1990 she was the first woman to comment on a football game on German television for the “ZDF sports studio”. At a time when football was an absolute male domain, this was a milestone.
A colleague is said to have once asked her whether she would actually take her husband to the football games, because after all she would definitely have no idea about the matter. How she got the respect of her colleagues at the time, she told “Turi2”: “It was not difficult. I am more of a sporty type and did not do it to dress like a goodkeeper. I also knew a lot about sport.”
In 1994 Holthoff did not belong to the team at the World Cup in the USA and suspected a misogynistic background. As a result, she decided to change the employer and hired in the same year as a football boss on German sports television (DSF/Note D. Editor: Today “Sport1”). There she developed two formats that should shape the transmitter. On the one hand, “Laola”: a program with the summary of the most important European league games of the weekend. On the other hand, the “double pass”: The football regulars’ table on Sunday morning has been an integral part of the station for decades.
There were different opinions about the creation of the “double pass”. Holthoff made its point of view in an interview with the “Turi2” media platform in 2020: “And yes, I started the ‘double pass’-even if it was surprisingly presented in the anniversary program on the 1,000th episode.”
After four years, Holthoff overturned with the new management of the DSF and left the TV station to join the SpVgg Unterhaching in 1999. Holthoff headed the press department at the then Bundesliga club. After the association’s relegation in 2001, Holthoff moved to Bavarian Radio, where she found her professional home.
Back on German television, Holthoff initially looked after the winter sports programs in the ARD before taking responsibility for the “Blickpunkt Sport” program on Saturday afternoon. Holthoff remained loyal to the BR for more than 20 years.
In 2019, Holthoff ventured to terrain for her to date. For the “Marc Cain” brand, she took over a model job. The “gala” said Holthoff afterwards: “I felt very uncomfortable at first, because as a TV journalist I only worked behind the camera and never wanted to go in front of the camera. But in the end it was also fun.”