Updated on March 16, 2025 – 2:13 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
German football mourns for Doris Fitschen. As the DFB announced, it died after a long and serious illness at the age of 56.
Doris Fitschen is dead. As the German Football Association (DFB) announced on Sunday, the former international died after a long and serious cancer on Saturday at the age of 56.
“I am dismayed and very sad about Doris’s death. Our thoughts are with her family, all relatives and close friends,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf. Between 1986 and 2001, Fitschen played a total of 144 caps. With the DFB selection, she won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 at the Olympic Games in Sydney.
With the TSV Siegen and the 1st FFC Frankfurt, she was three times German champion and three times DFB Cup winner at club level. From 2009 to 2016, Fitschen was a manager of the women’s national team, who became European champion twice during this time and Olympic champion in 2016. Most recently, she was responsible for the development and implementation of the strategy “Women in Football FF27” as an overall coordinator at the DFB.
“We no longer have a very special person around us with Doris. Especially in recent years and the certainty about her illness, the glass has always been half full for her. She has always seen things and life more positively as negative and has become a role model for many, not only on the field, but also as a person,” said DFB general secretary Heike Ullrich.
Neuendorf added: “As a player, she was a leader, a strategist, she had presence, dominance and aura, others were able to orientate herself. So I also experienced her in the DFB, in her impressive second career. Here, too, she went with her, at the same time as a team player, and with vehemence, competence and great empathy for the concerns of women’s football.”