Author: LitCam

Final tournament of “Fußball trifft Kultur” with over 600 children from 23 cities

Darmstadt, 10.06.2024 – Team spirit, enjoyment of the game and fair play – that was the motto of the final “Fußball trifft Kultur” (FtK) tournament in 2024.
Around 600 participants in the integrative educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur” travelled to Darmstadt from all over Germany to compete for the coveted trophies in the U10 and U14 age groups.

The 14th FtK final tournament was more than just a sporting showdown.
The event is the annual highlight of the educational program, which offers the more than 700 participants not only soccer training but also skills training, in particular language development.
Training and learning takes place twice a week in two halves at 23 locations across Germany.
The special feature: The program takes place in cooperation with professional clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2.
They provide a coach for the weekly program and promote the motivation of the participating children through their charisma and unique events such as children’s press conferences, stadium tours or match visits.
In this way, “Fußball trifft Kultur” reaches children from educationally disadvantaged social backgrounds in particular, who often feel less addressed by regular school lessons and thus benefit particularly from the additional promotion of language, movement and culture.
Florian Holzbrecher, Head of Events & CSR at the host of the final tournament, SV Darmstadt 98, describes how “Fußball trifft Kultur” supports the children in the respective locations as follows: “We provide a coach for the weekly program and promote the motivation of the participating children through the charisma of the club and unique events such as children’s press conferences, stadium tours or match visits. It’s great to see how the kids, led by our coach Nils Buhr and teacher Ben Schneider, not only learn in terms of content, but also grow together as a real team and act like one.”

The final tournament in Darmstadt is also representative of the integrative nature of the educational program.
United by the motivating power of soccer, children from a wide range of countries came together for a big soccer festival in which they were able to represent the colors of their respective partner clubs.
The participants not only demonstrated the progress they have made in soccer over the past year, but also experienced solidarity, fair play and teamwork at first hand.
The groups from the Grundschule an der Glinder Au (U10) and Herbert-Grillo-Gesamtschule (U14) were particularly pleased to win on behalf of FC St. Pauli and MSV Duisburg and raise the coveted challenge cup to the sky in Darmstadt.
The groups from Braunschweig (Diesterwegstraße elementary school) and Mainz (IGS Mainz Bretzenheim) were given a special honor when they were awarded the Fair Play Cup for their exemplary behavior.

In addition, a special award was on the program in the year of the European Football Championship in Germany: As part of the FtK-EuropeChallenge, the children spent the past six months exploring different European countries and their cultures.
The results were evaluated by a jury consisting of Matthias Bader (professional footballer at SV Darmstadt 98 and FtK program sponsor), Franziska Fey (Chairwoman of the DFL Foundation), Jonas Kozinowski (author of “Was ist Was – Fußball”), Karin Plötz (Director of LitCam) and Anton Schumacher (Head of Education at Eintracht Frankfurt’s youth development center) and were awarded prizes at the final tournament.
The winners from the Grundschule an der Glinder Au were delighted.

The various exercise stations also provided variety, where children and visitors were able to put their soccer skills to the test at a goal wall and a shot measuring system, among other things, and grow together as a team in various group games.
Dr Nadine Seddig, Head of Programs and Funding Management, who has been supporting FtK with the DFL Foundation as a nationwide partner since 2012, emphasized the central role of the tournament in the success of the project: “The final tournament is the absolute highlight of the FtK program every year. The great anticipation of the participating children is palpable for everyone and the atmosphere on site is characterized by great togetherness. It’s always great to see how everyone comes together to play soccer, have fun and achieve a goal as a team. That makes the tournament a great success again this year!”

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam gGmbH, which has been implementing the integrative education program since 2007, also drew a positive conclusion: “This year’s final tournament was once again the absolute highlight of the “Fußball trifft Kultur” program year.
The children love showing what they can do by playing soccer.
And they experience how important team spirit, fairness and respect are.
They are proud to be part of such a big tournament.
It’s an unforgettable experience for all the kids.”

The final placings:

U10

1st place: Grundschule an der Glinder Au, Hamburg

2nd place: GGS Flurstraße, Düsseldorf

3rd place: Fasanenhofschule, Stuttgart

4th place: GGS Lustheider Straße, Cologne

U14

1st place: Herbert-Grillo-Schule II, Duisburg

2nd place: Anne-Frank-Schule I, Dortmund

3rd place: IGS Bretzenheim, Mainz

4th place: Bärenkeller II secondary school, Augsburg

The EUROKiK draw

4,000 children, 150 schools, 24 countries.

As part of the EUROKiK draw, the participating schools finally found out which country they will be able to focus on particularly intensively in the coming school year.

Click here to go to the official EUROKiK website.

Around 100 children followed the action live on site in the multifunctional arena of the German Football Museum – including schools from Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen and Bochum as well as Breitenworbis elementary school, which traveled from Thuringia especially for the draw.
All other school classes followed the draw for their countries digitally in their classrooms.
Even before the draw, they were eagerly thinking about their personal dream tickets – the anticipation grew noticeably.

The event opened with a panel discussion featuring EUROKiK jury member Joachim Masannek, Roman Weidenfeller, former professional footballer and ambassador of the host city Dortmund for EURO 2024, Bernhard Gutowski, Managing Director of the EURO 2024 Football and Culture Foundation, and Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam gGmbH.
The panel discussion was moderated by TV presenter Sven Voss, as was the draw.

After the panel discussion, things got really exciting at the German Football Museum: Roman Weidenfeller, Joachim Masannek and Bernhard Gutowski drew lots to assign the participating schools to the countries taking part in the European Championship.
Of course, the school classes present at the event were particularly excited.
The Waldschule Bochum, for example, was looking forward to the cultural and footballing specialties of Poland:

“It was particularly cool that Roman Weidenfeller and Joachim Massanek were there to draw the lots.
We were given the country of Poland.
We think it’s good that we have Poland.
We don’t know that much about Poland yet, but the parents of one of our classmates are from Poland – they can certainly tell us a lot.
We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do about the country yet, but we’re sure we’ll come up with something good.”

Erik and Laura, Forest School Bochum

In addition to the actual draw, the soccer quiz on EUROKiK and EURO 2024 also provided excitement and fun for the participating children.
Representatives of the five school classes that had traveled to the event were able to put the knowledge they had gathered in the project to the test.
The beaming winners came from Gelsenkirchen.
They are firmly convinced that they will repeat this success with “their” country England in the further course of the project.

The guests

Roman Weidenfeller.
The former BVB goalkeeper became German champion twice and world champion in 2014.
He is a UEFA EURO 2024 ambassador for the host city of Dortmund.

Joachim Masannek.
As a member of the EUROKiK jury, the author and director of the “Wild Bunch” books and films evaluates the creative country presentations of the participating schools.

Bernhard Gutowski.
The Managing Director of the EURO 2024 gGmbH Football and Culture Foundation and his organization are promoting a broad cultural programme around EURO 2024.
Also involved: EUROKiK.

Karin Plötz.
The director of the non-profit organization LitCam has been campaigning for better education since 2007 with projects such as “Fußball trifft Kultur”, “Lesekicker” and “EUROKiK”.

The moderator

Sven Voss.
The TV presenter is one of the faces of ZDF sports broadcasts – for example as a reporter at major tournaments such as the World and European Championships or host of the ZDF sports studio.
He has also been inspiring many young readers since last year with his book “Fußball-Stars” (Football Stars), teaching important values about soccer and its role models and motivating children to read.

About the project

The EUROKiK project brings the fascination of EURO 2024 into Germany’s classrooms.
We use the enthusiasm for soccer and the European Championship as motivation, learning content and an object of cultural education.
Over 150 elementary school and 4,000 children will be part of the project in the 2023/2024 school year.
Exciting events, an exciting challenge and great prizes await the participating children.

Find out more on the EUROKiK website.

Our supporters

LitCam gGmbH is implementing EUROKiK with the support of the Stiftung Fußball & Kultur EURO 2024 gGmbH and the German government based on a resolution of the German Bundestag.
We receive further financial support from the Evonik Foundation.

“Wir für morgen” award: 17,500 euros for non-profit organization “LitCam”

We are receiving EUR 17,500 in funding for “Fußball trifft Kultur” as part of Union Investment’s “Wir für morgen” charity initiative.

The charity initiative “Wir für morgen” (We for tomorrow) by the fund management company Union Investment focuses on charitable associations and foundations from all over Germany that are committed to social justice, more equal opportunities and better environmental awareness.
“When we announced the awards publicly for the first time in the spring, we would never have dared to dream that over 230 associations and other organizations would apply for the prizes in the environmental, social and educational categories,” said patron and CEO Hans Joachim Reinke.
Under his chairmanship, the jury team, consisting of actor and documentary filmmaker Hannes Jaenicke (Environment category), former professional footballer and foundation founder Neven Subotic (Social category), “Network Opportunities” founder Natalya Nepomnyashcha (Education category) and a youth jury, selected a total of nine winning projects.
The award ceremony took place on November 20 at the Städel in Frankfurt.

In the education category, we received 17,500 euros in funding from Frankfurt.
With the “Fußball trifft Kultur” project, we are promoting educational equality and equal opportunities nationwide through language and reading promotion.
We specifically use the power of soccer to promote children’s communicative and linguistic engagement.
We would like to use the prize money to support a selected “Fußball trifft Kultur” location in Germany.

Final tournament of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” 2023

Frankfurt, 10.7.2023: For the second time, the 30 schools participating in the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project played out the winners of the final tournament.
At the SV Blau-Gelb grounds in Frankfurt’s Niddapark, the teams from Münzenberger School, Niddaschule and IGS Mainspitze came out on top in their respective age groups.

Over 500 children from all over the Rhine-Main region traveled to Frankfurt to take part in the big final tournament of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” for the second time since 2022.
The goal of everyone involved: the trophies in the respective age groups.
And yet the final tournament is more than just a sporting showdown.
The event is the annual highlight of the integrative educational project, in which around 700 pupils took part last year.

The project combines soccer, language and culture and offers participants a motivating, low-threshold offer that promotes their language and social skills and gets them moving in the long term.
In this way, “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” reaches children from educationally disadvantaged social backgrounds in particular, who often feel less addressed by regular school lessons and benefit particularly from the additional support.
Training and learning takes place twice a week in two halves at 30 schools.
In addition, various workshops and excursions were offered to broaden the children’s cultural horizons.
There were also activities during the vacations that combined soccer and language in a fun way.

Throughout the school year, the final tournament acted as a motivating and unifying element.
The children prepared for the big day together with their project teachers and coaches and experienced cohesion, fair play and team spirit at the tournament.
The tournament was the conclusion and highlight of the second year of the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project. With this special regional edition of the nationwide educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur”, LitCam and the Hessian Ministry of Culture made it possible to hold “Fußball trifft Kultur” at 30 additional schools in the Rhine-Main region this school year.
Funded by the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” initiative of the Hessian Ministry of Culture, “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” has been offered at 26 primary and four secondary schools in the Rhine-Main region since the start of the 2021/2022 school year.

“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” is run by around 60 dedicated project teachers and coaches who ensure the successful implementation of the project at the respective schools.
The team consists primarily of teacher training and sports students as well as certified coaches who use their enthusiasm for soccer to promote the children’s social and language skills.

Comments on the tournament

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam, was delighted with the successful implementation of the first year of the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project: “I am delighted that we were able to successfully implement the ‘Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur’ project at 30 schools in the Rhine-Main region thanks to the funding from ‘Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK’. The final tournament at the end of the first year of the project was an absolute highlight for the participating children. The children’s enthusiasm as they played for the trophy shows the motivational power of soccer.”

Minister of Culture Prof. Dr. Alexander Lorz explained: “In the time of school closures, much of what ‘Fußball trifft Kultur’ focuses on has been neglected: exercise, learning German and social interaction. That’s why I’m so grateful to LitCam gGmbH for specifically supporting children and young people with their program. The large number of pupils taking part speaks for itself.”

Photos: LitCam / Witters

“Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”: LitCam adds 16 new project locations to its funding program in Hesse

Frankfurt am Main, March 01, 2023: Kicking and learning, dribbling and strengthening social skills in the process – 16 schools in northern and central Hesse have also been enjoying this offer since the start of the second half of the 2022/2023 school year.
With these additional project groups, LitCam is further expanding its “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project, which was launched in 2021 and already supports 30 schools in the Rhine-Main region.
The project, which is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Education as part of the “Löwenstark – Der BildungsKICK” initiative, can now reach up to 1,000 children.

At “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”, pupils in grades three to six receive one half of soccer training and one half of skills training twice a week, in which language and social skills in particular are taught.
In addition, cultural activities are offered to give the children new cultural insights and create a link between soccer, language and culture.
The big common goal of the participants is the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” final tournament, in which all participating schools compete for the coveted trophies.
The aim of this approach is to strengthen team spirit, fair play and cooperation, while at the same time motivating the participants to take part in the additional language training, in which soccer serves as a language opportunity.

The concept of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” is based on the approach of the nationwide integrative educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur”, which LitCam has been running since 2007.
Together with partner clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, local sponsors and, since 2012, the DFL Foundation as a nationwide partner, this project is now offered at 35 project locations in 23 German cities.
The Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs act as cooperation partners in the respective cities and provide the coaches for the “Fußball trifft Kultur” soccer training sessions.
This concept is slightly modified as part of “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur”.
The soccer training is carried out by sports students and licensed soccer coaches from popular sports clubs.

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam gGmbH, welcomes the expansion of the funding in Hesse: “We are delighted to be able to further expand “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” with our locations in northern and central Hesse.
In the course of the project so far, we have seen that we can motivate the participating children with our offer and get them moving.
Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” not only offers the children academic and sporting support, but also creates additional language opportunities, a sense of achievement and motivation to learn through the special combination of soccer, language and culture.”

Further information on the “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” project can be found here.

New Year’s reception 2023

On January 26, 2023, we welcomed sponsors and cooperation partners to the Haus des Buches for our fourth New Year’s reception.

Oliver Schlimm, Head of Human Resources at the Börsenverein Group, hosted the evening in his traditional entertaining manner.
LitCam Director Karin Plötz gave an exciting review of the past year 2022, which had a lot to offer, from our major project “Löwenstark – Fußball trifft Kultur” to the Kulturstadion at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the fifth edition of Lese-Kicker.
A special reason to celebrate was the 15th anniversary of our nationwide educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur”, for which we hosted an illustrious panel discussion.

This consisted of personalities who have shaped FtK and who all represent an important part of our program in different ways: Nia Künzer (former soccer world champion, head of the department for integration, social support and volunteering), Anton Schumacher (pedagogical director of the youth training center at Eintracht Frankfurt) and Jonas Schuster (pedagogical director of the youth training center at 1. FSV Mainz 05).
All three talked about their very own and at the same time unifying experiences from the program – with one or two anecdotes and a little reminiscing about the past.
In addition, a variety of impressions from the youth performance centers were described and Nia Künzer gave exciting insights into her day-to-day work as head of the department responsible for integration.

Following the impressive round of talks, the buffet was opened – special thanks go to Ms. Durgun and her team from Elzem-Cateringservice for the freshly prepared and particularly tasty Anatolian-Oriental dishes.
We would also like to thank Weinhaus Grüneburgweg for providing the drinks that harmoniously accompanied the evening’s finale.

We would like to thank all our guests for the very pleasant exchange and the support they gave us and look forward to seeing you again soon at different locations.

Lese-Kicker 2022 – The award ceremony

Lots of interested children, inspiring guests and an eagerly awaited announcement of the winners – the award ceremony for this year’s Lese-Kicker was synonymous with a very successful conclusion to our nationwide reading promotion project.

The award ceremony took place on Tuesday afternoon, December 6, 2022, at the Evangelische Akademie in Frankfurt.
The prize for the best children’s football book went to Birgit Hasselbusch (“Hallo, hej und Marhaba – Freundschaftsspiel mit Doppelpass”, Thienemann-Esslinger Verlag), while Sven Voss (“Fußball-Stars: 40 Idole und ihre Geschichten”, EMF Verlag) was delighted to receive the prize for the best youth football book.

In addition to this year’s nominated authors, 60 children from the participating schools were also present at the award ceremony.
The pupils proudly announced their award winners on behalf of the Lese-Kicker children’s jury.

Birgit Hasselbusch’s winning book “Hallo, hej und Marhaba – Freundschaftsspiel mit Doppelpass” is a story about the integrative power of soccer and how it brings children from different backgrounds together.
In “Football stars: 40 idols and their stories” by Sven Voss, the author conveys special and inspiring life stories of great soccer stars in an age-appropriate way.
Sven Voss himself was unable to attend work due to the World Cup, but was able to join in live from Qatar to the delight of all participants.

With Lese-Kicker 2022, we have reached over 2,000 children who have engaged intensively with the 10 nominated children’s and soccer books with the help of teaching materials tailored to the book content.
Once again, we would like to thank everyone involved, especially our partners, participating schools, nominated authors and publishers.
Together, they have made a great contribution to the fact that reading is not as boring as some children might have initially thought – especially when the topic of soccer plays a role.

The trophy for the best soccer children’s book and soccer youth book was presented with prize money of €1,500 at the official awards ceremony.
New soccer publications (spring 2020 to spring 2022) from the fields of fiction and non-fiction for children aged 8 to 12 and young people aged 12 to 16 were nominated.

The winning authors were ultimately decided by a jury consisting of:

100 school classes nationwide
Ridle Baku, professional footballer and ambassador for “Fußball trifft Kultur”
Nia Künzer, soccer world champion
Tim Gailus, TV presenter “Timster”
Olliver Tietz, Managing Director of the DFB Cultural Foundation
Claudia Pecher, German Academy for Children’s and Youth Literature e.V.
Matthias Thoma, Managing Director of Eintracht Frankfurt Museum GmbH
Kaspar Pflaum, German Publishers and Booksellers Association
Norbert Niclauß, Advisor to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam

The Lese-Kicker is awarded to the most appealing children’s and youth book in terms of idea, linguistic implementation and graphic design that best succeeds in inspiring people to read about soccer. As part of a Germany-wide reading promotion campaign that accompanies the Lese-Kicker, the books are also judged by 100 school classes from all over Germany.
This means that the Lese-Kicker is not just an award ceremony, but a nationwide reading promotion project in which the children of the participating schools are encouraged to read and engage intensively with the books with the help of teaching materials tailored to the books.

You can find out more about Lese-Kicker 2022 and this year’s highlights from the project here.

Lese-Kicker 2022 – The big stadium tour

The Lese-Kicker 2022 is on its way – After the shortlist for this year’s Lese-Kicker was announced in September, we are now embarking on a big stadium tour.

In ten soccer stadiums across Germany, a shortlisted author will read from their soccer book to interested school classes.
Whether Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg or Berlin – Lese-Kicker 2022 is going on tour across Germany.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022: Kick-off event at the Eintracht Museum

At the kick-off event at the Eintracht Museum in Frankfurt, we welcomed numerous guests, including Matthias Knöß, nominee in the youth book category with “Fussball findet auch im Kopf statt 2” and Harald Kiesel, publisher of “360 Grad”.
Our guests’ readings were followed with great interest by two of our school classes, whose pupils are taking part in Lese-Kicker 2022.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022: Frankfurt, Eintracht Museum, Deutsche Bank Park

Author Jola Bilko kicked off the lecture series, which begins in November, with his children’s soccer book “ICH.BALL!”.
In the book, the reader takes on the perspective of the ball and gets to know its relationship to the game of soccer, to its best friends Maximilian (8) and Mia (10) and to its family.
Jola Bilko describes the story from the ball’s perspective in a humorous, entertaining and exciting way.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022: St. Pauli, Millerntorstadion

The author Ocke Bandixen introduced many interested primary school children from the
3rd and
4th grade children his children’s book “Tim’s Secret Soccer Diary”.
In this children’s book series for boys and girls aged 9 and up, a big challenge awaits soccer coach Tim and his friends.
Tim’s secret diary will play an important role – because the next strong opponent with the dreaded Pudding Bomber is already waiting.

Thursday, November 3, 2022: Bochum, Vonovia Ruhrstadion

Sven Voss has also been nominated for the Lese-Kicker with his book “Fußball-Stars: 40 Idole und ihre Geschichten” (Emf Verlag) and gave the children exclusive insights into the book and his everyday life as a sports presenter as part of the stadium reading.
In his book, he conveys special and inspiring life stories of great soccer stars in an age-appropriate way.
Afterwards, the children and young people peppered the author with numerous fascinating questions.

Monday, November 7, 2022: Mainz, MEWA Arena

As part of the Lese-Kicker 2022 stadium tour, our “Fußball trifft Kultur” program groups were given an exciting look behind the scenes – both of the stadium and of the book “Fußball! Mein krasses Tagebuch” by Heiko Wolz. In the MEWA Arena of 1. FSV Mainz 05, the author explained what his latest soccer book is about and why the book is particularly suitable for soccer fans for whom soccer means just as much as its protagonist Anton.

Thursday, November 10, 2022: Düsseldorf, Merkur Spiel-Arena

In the stadium stands of Fortuna Düsseldorf, some of our FtK children had the opportunity to follow “Die Wilden Kerle ” author Joachim Masannek live at a stadium reading about his book “Die Wilden Kerle Band 5 ¾ – Juli und der geheime Joker”, which was nominated for the Lesekicker 2022.
The author also gave interesting insights into the creation of his popular book series.
It was an exciting experience for all participants, as the latest volume once again promises plenty of suspense: Juli gets to know the mysterious girl Nadezhda and uncovers an incredible secret…

Monday, November 14, 2022: Berlin, Alte Försterei

The Lese-Kicker stadium tour also visited 1. FC Union Berlin at the Stadion an der Alten Försterei.
Here, author Martina Wildner presented her book “Der Himmel über dem Platz”.
It is about a young soccer player’s big dream.
Jolanda has to overcome various obstacles and fight numerous battles on her way to becoming the best soccer player in the world: whether it’s training with the boys’ team or overcoming her self-doubt.

Wednesday, November 30, 2022: Braunschweig, Eintracht Stadium

Author Birgit Hasselbusch presented her latest soccer book “Hallo, hej und Marhaba – Freundschaftsspiel mit Doppelpass” to our FtK kids from Diesterwegstraße elementary school – a story about the integrative power of soccer and how it brings children from different backgrounds together.
The reading took place in the press room of Eintracht Braunschweig’s stadium – a special atmosphere with enthusiastic children who took part in the reading with a lot of fun and interest.

Thursday, December 1, 2022: Mönchengladbach, Borussia Park

Fortunately, author Irene Margil was also a guest on our Lese-Kicker stadium tour.
In the stadium box at Borussia Park, she gave a reading of her book “Fussball-Profi: Fußball, Champions und Europa”, which inspired our listeners – the FtK kids from Mönchengladbach – to read on.
The program also included a Q&A session with the author and exciting behind-the-scenes insights for the children – a very special experience for all participants.

The nominations and readings in the children’s book category:

Joachim Masannek: Wilde Kerle Volume 5 ¾ – Juli and the secret joker (360 degrees)
Jola Bilko, Peter Großmann: Me ball – New game.
New luck (360 degrees)
Heiko Wolz, Zapf: Soccer – My crass diary (Carlsen)
Ocke Bandixen, Dominik Rupp: Tim’s secret soccer diary – Elf Freunde und ich (Loewe)
Birgit Hasselbusch: Hallo, hej und Marhaba – Friendship game with double pass (Thienemann-Esslinger)

The nominations and readings in the Youth Book category:

Martina Wildner: The sky above the square (Beltz & Gelberg)
Irene Margil, Andreas Schlüter: Professional Footballer – Football, Champions and Europe (Carlsen)
Matthias Knöß: Football also takes place in the mind 2 (Econ)
Sven Voss: Football stars – 40 idols and their stories (EMF)
Jonas Kozinowski: WAS IST WAS – Soccer (Tessloff)

The Lese-Kicker is awarded to the most appealing children’s and youth book in terms of idea, linguistic implementation and graphic design that best succeeds in inspiring people to read about soccer. As part of a Germany-wide reading promotion campaign that accompanies the “Lese-Kicker”, the books are also judged by 100 school classes from all over Germany.
This means that the Lese-Kicker is not just an award ceremony, but a nationwide reading promotion project in which the children of the participating schools are encouraged to read and engage intensively with the books with the help of teaching materials tailored to the books.

You can find out more about Lese-Kicker 2022 here.

Supported by:

Other partners:

The Lese-Kicker 2022 starts!

The Lese-Kicker starts for the fifth time! The Lese-Kicker is awarded to the most appealing children’s and youth book in terms of idea, linguistic implementation and graphic design that best succeeds in inspiring people to read about soccer. Soccer is not only the favorite sport of most children, but also motivates many boys in particular to read a book.

Reading opens doors – that’s why good books are the basis for promoting reading skills.
With playful learning material, the excitement of determining the winner and great prizes, the Lese-Kicker 2022 once again offers a varied project for publishers and authors, school classes and teachers.
Who will win the prize for the best children’s soccer book and the best youth soccer book?
Which classes will win a stadium reading in their area or participation in the award ceremony at the German Football Museum in Dortmund?

This is decided by the jury consisting of:

Ridle Baku, professional footballer and ambassador for “Fußball trifft Kultur”
Nia Künzer, soccer world champion
Tim Gailus, TV presenter “Timster”
Olliver Tietz, Managing Director of the DFB Cultural Foundation
Claudia Pecher, German Academy for Children’s and Youth Literature e.V.
Matthias Thoma, Managing Director of Eintracht Frankfurt Museum GmbH
Kaspar Pflaum, German Publishers and Booksellers Association
Norbert Niclauß, Advisor to the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam
100 school classes nationwide

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us:

LitCam non-profit limited liability company

Kristin Mollenhauer

Phone: 069 21 02 182

We were there: The #EU BeInclusive Sport Awards 2021

Our educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur” was nominated for the #BeInclusive EU Sport Awards 2021.
Each year, the European Commission presents the awards to programs that use the power of sport to empower socially disadvantaged people.

Together with two other great projects from the International Judo Federation (Hungary) and Politecnico de Milano (Italy), we were nominated for the award in the “Breaking Barriers” category with “Fußball trifft Kultur”.
This category addresses projects and programs that specifically overcome barriers in order to increase diversity of opportunity and enable participation in sport.

The award ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, as an in-person and online event in Brussels’ European Quarter.
We ourselves accepted the personal invitation of the European Commission and attended the event.
Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, finally announced the winners in the evening.
In the end, our Italian co-finalists from the Politecnico di Milano were delighted to receive the winner’s trophy with their outstanding project “GIFT”.
We were also very proud of our shared second place and afterwards had inspiring discussions with inspiring personalities from the nominated project sponsors.

The preliminary phase included short interviews with all finalists.
As part of this, the European Commission writes about “Fußball trifft Kultur”:

Thanks to these doses of inspiration provided by FtK, children from underprivileged areas now feel prouder and more prepared when it comes to learning.
With passion as the main ingredient, “Football meets Culture” has figured out a way to balance education, sport and culture.
These three components of pedagogic advancement are best described by the internal motto, ‘Starts little and develops big’. This is the ultimate goal of FtK: to expand social horizons for children from neglected areas.

Click here for the full website article on “Fußball trifft Kultur” published by the European Commission.