Blind Football at FC St. Pauli

In spring 2006, Katja and Michael Löffler approached Dieter Rittmeyer, chairman of the men’s football division, in search of support to set up a blind football team at FC St. Pauli. He was immediately convinced and promised to include a blind football team in the division – on an equal footing and with all the opportunities available to other teams. Thanks to his support, things progressed rapidly.

In November 2006, FC St. Pauli and MTV Stuttgart, the first two German blind football teams, competed against each other. In 2008, the St. Pauli team was among the eight founding members of the Blind Football Bundesliga and launched their own Indoor Masters tournament under the motto ‘Keep your mind wide open’. During the first six years in the Bundesliga, Braun-Weiß regularly found themselves battling for last or second-last place, until their intensive youth development work began to pay off in 2014: FC St. Pauli finished fifth in the league for the first time. In the same year, the Masters switched from an indoor to an outdoor tournament and moved to the newly built pitch at Borgweg. In the years that followed, it developed into a top European tournament featuring numerous international teams.

In 2016, 17-year-old Jonathan Tönsing was crowned the Bundesliga’s top scorer. His team-mate Paul Ruge, who was the same age, was voted the league’s best midfielder, whilst Rasmus Narjes (16) was named the league’s best defender. With these young talents in their ranks, the blind footballers celebrated their first league title the following year. The four players on the pitch were, on average, just 17.5 years old. In their attempt to defend the title, St. Pauli narrowly lost the 2018 league final 1–2 to MTV Stuttgart. However, St. Pauli’s goal by Serdal Celebi was voted Goal of the Month by ARD’s Sportschau in August 2018, marking the first time a goal by a blind footballer received this honour.

Since 2017, St. Pauli has won a total of four league titles (2017, 2021, 2022, 2024) and finished as runners-up five times. In 2019, St. Pauli also won the Bucovice Blind Football Cup – the second top-level tournament for European teams, besides their own Masters. The cup was also significant for the Kiezkickers because it fosterd international connections and still does so. Further, it broadens the team’s horizon far beyond the confines of the Bundesliga – both in sporting and personal terms.

In 2022, the FC St. Pauli, where mixed teams had been playing from the very beginning, founded the first women’s team in German blind football. Shortly afterwards, this squad formed the core of the national team, which went on to win the inaugural Women’s European Championship later in the year. During that 2022 season, for the first time, three women – Svenja Bartels (goalkeeper), Thoya Küster and Alisa Rudi – featured in the Bundesliga starting five. In 2023, the FC St. Pauli women once more formed the core of the national team, which took part in the first Women’s World Cup in Birmingham and finished seventh out of eight.

Captions:
As a founding member of the German Blind Football Bundesliga, FC St. Pauli participated in the league’s opening matchday in Berlin on 29 March 2008.

FC St. Pauli player Paul Ruge takes a shot on goal against English goalkeeper Owen Locke during the Bucovice Blind Football Cup 2023. In the final, FC St. Pauli was defeated 4–2 by Merseyside Blind & Visually Impaired Football Club.

In January 2022, the players of FC St. Pauli founded Germany’s first women’s blind football team.