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.