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Sabine Töpperwien has commented on over 700 live players and was the head of the WDR sports department on radio
Photo: Dirk Borm / dpa
Football on the radio was pure love for me as a girl.
No matter where.
I remember the time when my club was playing in the third division and I was waiting longingly for the presenter on NDR 2 to switch to the stadium for a few moments, a stadium atmosphere, an attack, and hopefully a goal.
At the same time, of course, the teletext was checked.
There are the Saturdays in the children's room with the ARD Bundesliga conference, the heartbeat, the cheering.
The afternoon in 2001 when FC Schalke 04 sank in the valley of tears and the championship title, believed to be safe, went to Bayern.
My parents, my brother and I visit relatives that day, but just stay in the car and let the family wait because it's too good, too exciting.
Football on the radio, that's cinema in your head.
Be close, go with you, with suffering.
Just like Sabine Töpperwien.
She is one of the voices that convey the many emotions that games verbally paint on.
Part of my childhood and youth.
A woman commenting on football.
Completely normal.
It wasn't until years later when I wanted to become a sports journalist myself that I realized how special her role actually is.
Need an example?
During an internship, a colleague said to me: "If your career doesn't work out, you can still become a housewife and mother!" He grins and is happy.
Big cinema.
Sometimes I remember him when I'm in the stadium doing my job.
And smile.
Greetings go out to my friends who are already mothers and rock this full-time job.
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Töpperwien 1994: "This young Töpperwien, she does it very well, you can take her seriously."
Photo: imago sportfotodienst
But actually it was and still is easier for me than Sabine Töpperwien had at the time.
She fought for her dream job at a time when women were ridiculed in football.
In the current WDR2 podcast "Simply Football", she tells how Otto Rehhagel once refused to give her an interview on the training ground, saying that she had "never smelled the sweat of a cabin".
And how his wife Beate hears her on the radio some time later and tells him: "This young Töpperwien, she does it very well, you can take her seriously."
Sabine Töpperwien remains persistent, asserts herself and does not allow herself to be distracted from her goal by any critical comment.
In 1989 she commented on the victory of the German women's national team over Italy at the European Championship live on television.
A historic game, after which the players tour the TV studios for the first time and get the appropriate attention.
In the same year, she was used as a reporter for the first time in the Bundesliga by Norddeutscher Rundfunk, her broadcaster at the time, at the game St. Pauli against Hamburger SV.
She hadn't slept for two nights because she was so nervous.
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Töpperwien 1994 with national player Mario Basler
Photo: imago sportfotodienst
When I switched to the sports department of the RBB in 2015, Sabine Töpperwien had long been the sports director of WDR radio.
My path leads through a casting to Berlin, reporters and commentators are wanted.
Of course, I have to assert myself, I slept little or no sleep before the first live games.
And yes, I still work on the many details in my reports to this day.
But I am supported on my way.
And respected.
The acceptance has increased, those who smile at me nonetheless, I meet by doing my job well.
That fits relatively quickly.
It is thanks to Sabine's merit that women are more likely to start in football today.
By the way, we have never met in person to this day, but one Saturday I was allowed to take part in the ARD Bundesliga conference with her.
More than twenty years after listening to her in the nursery at home.
And she was still emotional and close, with a passion for it.
So now Sabine Töpperwien is quitting at the age of 60, for health reasons.
When I was asked if I would like to write this text, I said "yes".
Because I would like to say "thank you".
For sticking with it, fighting for her dream in a male domain and doing such important work for all women who are still to come.
Thanks.
Icon: The mirror