Anne Trabant-Haarbach won eleven championships as a footballer and as a coach. She was a pioneer of women’s football in Germany – at a time when the DFB didn’t want it at all. On January 1st, Anne Trabant-Haarbach celebrates her 75th birthday.
Sometimes thoughts come up. “Then I’ll think about how much longer I have left,” says Anne Trabant-Haarbach, and then quickly adds: “But I’m fine, don’t worry.” However, she is currently convalescing and had an artificial shoulder joint inserted six weeks ago. That’s why the big 75th birthday celebration is on January 1st “postponed for now”.
Anne Trabant-Haarbach is the scout, the trailblazer, the first really big name in German women’s football. With iron will, passion and determination, she fought her way through the years 1955 to 1970, when the German Football Association (DFB) officially banned women’s and girls’ football. Reason: The martial art is football “essentially alien to the nature of women.”
Trabant-Haarbach won eleven championship titles with three clubs
Regardless, Trabant-Haarbach remained true to her passion and set one milestone after another. As a player and later as a coach, she won a total of eleven German championships as well as the first two finals of the DFB Cup with TuS Wörrstadt, Bonner SC and SSG Bergisch-Gladbach. In 1981, after a rather half-hearted invitation from the DFB, she competed with Bergisch-Gladbach at the unofficial World Cup in Taiwan and brought the title with her from there.
Then the DFB also decided to build a women’s national team. Trabant-Haarbach was involved in the planning. “And then I was allowed to lead this national team onto the field for their first international match as captain.”, she tells. That was on November 10, 1982 in Koblenz, Germany won 5-1 against Switzerland: “The thought still brings tears to my eyes, the emotions are as vivid as they were on the first day.”
Trabant-Haarbach has a tip for the DFB: “Take a look abroad too”
But back to the present. Where does Anne Trabant-Haarbach see the national team in the 2024 Olympic year? The qualification for Paris is “The opportunity is there, you just have to use it.” This requires passion and a firm will from every single player “The willingness to put not just yourself, but the cause, the team, in the foreground.”
Horst Hrubesch, the interim national coach, is definitely the right man for this tricky mission, although Trabant-Haarbach would like to have a woman on the bench again in the long term. What does she need to bring with her? “Of course a lot of specialist knowledge, a lot of self-confidence and the ability to deal with criticism calmly and constructively.” The DFB could help with the search “It’s definitely worth taking a look abroad.” Trabant-Haarbach doesn’t want to name names, “That’s not my job, and it’s not my place to do it.”
By the way: Hrubesch’s recipe for success, she says, is actually quite simple: “He’s not a laptop coach, his principle is to play the ball forward directly and quickly and score a goal.” Football can really be quite simple.