CONSTANCE, Germany (dpa) – Two men who have been left wearing artificial limbs following serious accidents have become the first disabled Germans to obtain the country’s second highest football coaching licence.
Rudiger Boehm from Darmstadt and Peter Armbruster from Constance have been awarded the German Football Federation (DFB) A licence, enabling them to coach all junior and senior teams apart from the top two Bundesliga divisions.
“Everyone has seen that it really is nothing unusual,” said 35-year-old Armbruster who was allowed onto the coaching course after initial resistance from football authorities.
Armbruster lost his right leg below the knee in an accident 11 years ago, and his application to take part in the DFB coaching course was initially rejected.
The DFB argued that Armbruster’s participation would be unfair on others in the course as he would be unable to take the examination on ball skills in which all would-be coaches are tested on their own technical ability.
Armbruster was told in 1998 by DFB trainer Bernd Stoeber, “a blind man
cannot become a pilot”.
Stoeber now admits he was wrong. “This was entirely new territory for us.
Now through these two we have gained new insights, and it was really a
wonderful feeling to experience their delight on successfully completing
the course.”
Boehm is also entirely positive about his experiences on the five-week
course at a sport school at Hennef near Bonn.
Unlike Armbruster, 30-year-old Boehm met no opposition when he applied
for the course. In fact, he was encouraged to go for the badge by DFB General
Secretary Horst R. Schmidt.
Boehm had to have both his right leg and his left leg below the knee amputated
following a cycling accident three years ago.
It appeared to be the end of his dreams of becoming a top soccer coach.
“After my accident I had erased all thoughts of the A licence,” he said.
“Schmidt then asked me if there was anything he could do for me.”
After resuming work as a course leader at a physiotherapy practice in Darmstadt,
Boehm said he “really felt like going again for the coaching licence”.
He travelled to Hennef worried that others on the course would not accept
him as an equal. But those fears vanished as soon as the course began.
Armbruster said the disabilities restricted them at times. “But the others
on the course were also not able to take part in all the sessions as a
result of injury and were able to pass the test as well,” he said.
The new coaches have very clear ideas of what they want to do in the game.
Armbruster had coached youth teams for 10 years at his local club FC Wollmatingen,
and wants to continue helping to develop young talent. He has formed a
company, Fussball Teamsport Club 2000, with this aim in mind.
Boehm has set his sights on top-flight coaching. He had already coached
the Nigerian under-21 team during a stay in Germany in 1994, including
the present Bayer Leverkusen player Pascal Ojigwe.
With university courses in sport, economics and politics behind him he
could also envisage moving into sport management.
