Amputee football: Mainz 05 proud champion on crutches

1. FSV Mainz 05 has been crowned German champions. The 05ers won the final of the Amputee Bundesliga against Hamburger SV.

What: imago

While his teammates were still celebrating the first championship title in the club’s history in Berlin’s Mommsenstadion, the winning goalscorer disappeared into the catacombs for the 1-0 final win against Hamburger SV (22nd). A short interview, then Christian Heintz strapped on his prosthetic leg. Ultimately, the hero of this Bundesliga final in amputee football himself had to host the award ceremony, where the fancy championship trophy was awarded to his club Mainz 05 for the first time in history.

The national player with the blonde hedgehog hairstyle is not only one of the best amputee kickers in the country. The footballer, who comes from Bodenbach near Kelberg, also acts as the honorary managing director of the umbrella organization for this sport.

“Goal of the month”

:Amputee footballer Chaanoune honored

Fortuna Düsseldorf’s amputee footballer Radouane Chaanoune has won the “Goal of the Month” vote. In the voting, he beat Ilkay Gündogan, among others.

Amputee football: a shadowy existence instead of a state affair

Last year, the spectacular overhead kick by amputee footballer Radouane Chaanoune (Fortuna Düsseldorf) was voted goal of the month for June – a huge gap ahead of the volley hit by then national team captain Ilkay Gündogan.

Nevertheless, this sport, which is very attractive to spectators just like visual media, has a shadowy existence for people with disabilities in the football nation of Germany. The players sometimes travel up to three hours to their teams’ training sessions because there are currently only five Bundesliga clubs.

In the country of the world and European champions Türkiye, thousands of spectators come to big games, and in Poland you can also earn money with amputee football.

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Christian Heintz

This is also due to the fact that the large professional football clubs in the neighboring country have to use a certain amount for inclusive sports. In Turkey, amputee football is even a state affair: At the 2022 World Cup final in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrated alongside the sports and health ministers.

Hardly any support from the professional departments

The German amputee footballers, on the other hand, have to fight for the existence of the Bundesliga and national team. Support for the professional clubs Mainz 05, Hamburger SV and Fortuna Düsseldorf, who took first to third place in the championship on Saturday, remains very limited. There training opportunities, a bus for away games and some support from the social media department – that’s it.

There is a lot of talk about inclusion, but when it comes to, for example, a promotional appearance by the experts on crutches during the half-time break of a Bundesliga game, rejections regularly come. “Also because the groundskeeper is afraid for the sacred lawn,” reports Heintz. He is now fighting to ensure that his team can at least do a lap of honor with the championship trophy at Mainz 05’s Bundesliga home game.

A prime example of integration and inclusion

The lack of support from sponsors is incomprehensible: Migrants with disabilities are given help here to be included, as are war victims from Ukraine or Germans after strokes of fate. For example, there is the story of the teenager Nicola Roos, who lost her leg due to blood cancer. Now she is the only woman in all Bundesliga teams to become German champion with Mainz 05 and plays for the national team.

Majed Sajid from HSV and Nicola Roos from Mainz 05 (right) in a duel. Roos was the only woman in all Bundesliga teams to become German champion and plays for the national team.

What: imago

Christian Heintz lost his lower leg in a car accident 14 years ago and amputee football saved him from depression, as he revealed in an interview. “If I could choose between going back and living the life I once had or going back and living like it is now, I would always choose the way it is now.”

I don’t want my leg back at all.

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Christian Heintz

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What: Reuters

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