Last October Mainz 05 against Hamburger SV secured the championship title in the amputated Bundesliga.
Photo: Mehmet Dedeoglu
Christian Heintz dominates the high art. Let the crutches fall, throw yourself on a flank – and to achieve a header. Something like that can do very few in amputee football. His complex harmony is the best answer to the repeated question: “Football with one leg: How is that supposed to work?” The 41-year-old is not only the best player at FSV Mainz 05, but also the busy thousandsassa: as managing director of the non-profit umbrella organization of German amputated football, he also organizes the game.
“Five years ago we were only 15 players nationwide, now it is already 80. But of course that’s still too little,” says Heintz. Otherwise, only Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hamburger SV, BFC Preussen Berlin and kick -off Hoffenheim entertain a team. The Bundesliga club Mainz 05 started the division in 2023 in order to meet his social responsibility even better. »The motivation is even higher for us than with normal bipeds. We are not grown, but we play as rapid football, ”Heintz assures. In addition to feeling in the foot, strength in your arms and shoulders is needed to move quickly on the walking aids. Skillful fighter bodies are required. And a portion of pragmatism paired with courage.
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Return after ten percent chance of survival
Heintz worked as a painter and painter in the Eifel, played football at SG Alfbachtal in the Südwest Rheinland league when he slipped out of a curve in 2010 on a winter night. The car crashed into a tree – it was not strapped. The doctors only gave him a ten percent chance of survival in a coma in the hospital. The right leg was crushed. He survived – and made the decision that his broken leg should not be stiffened with a steel structure, but should be amputated because an artificial leg with the prosthesis is more agile. “That’s why I told the doctors: once, please.” Sound macabre, but was right in retrospect.
Most of his today’s teammates have lost foot or leg after cancer, accidents or congenital dysmelia. That is why Stefan Schmidt calls himself the “exot”: in 2017 he collided so unhappily in a district league game with the goalkeeper that shin and fibula broke in the right angle. The doctors noticed too late that the lower leg was not properly supplied with blood. The case caused a sensation nationwide.
Every year it hits around 60,000 people in Germany, who have to take a limb for medical reasons. Toes and fingers, but also lower and thighs. In many medical houses and orthopedic practices, flyers that draw attention to sports offers for amputators are located – but often those affected do not have this in their heads. Heintz tries to find those who might be able to kick. The personal tragedy of each individual would not be interested in at first: “Only at the third, fourth time one asks:” What actually happened to you? “” “
Guide against the trauma
He also convinced Schmidt at the bedside. “I still remember exactly how Christian chatted with me that I should play football again,” says the 31-year-old, who at that time only thought of athletics with prosthesis. Today he proudly says that he was “from the soccer field to the soccer field”. And he asserts: “I don’t miss anything anymore.” The same applies to him as to his teammate Nicola Roos: “Football helped me to process my own story.” Sports as trauma therapy.
Roos serves as a prime example of inclusion. The 18-year-old is actually the only amputated footballer in Germany: she was 14 when she lost her leg because of a cancer tumor in her knee. Even as a child, she had played football at TSV Reichenbach with a lot of boys. Coach Jürgen Menger today calls 18-year-old his “First Lady”. Because: “It shows that it also works as a woman.” The ex-professional Menger is extremely annoyed that the German Football Association (DFB) does not accept the “AMPU kickers”, as they call themselves. “I would like the DFB to promote the athletes who have had a difficult stroke of fate.”
Touching the ball with one of the crutches counts as a handball.
Photo: Mehmet Dedeoglu “DEDEPRESS”
Everything depends on the recognition of amputee football as a Paralympic sport, which, however, is only in prospect for the 2032 games in Brisbane through the International Paralympic Committee. Menger openly criticizes: “That takes too long for me.” The 64-year-old came to his current task because his son Robin lost his left lower leg four years ago while crossing the tracks at the Mainz train station. “It was a tragedy, the whole family was in shock for a long time.” He immediately impressed the community of fate, which despite impairing with both legs in life.
The rules
The rules for field players stipulate that without leg or arm prosthesis and one-legged on crutches. There must be an armamputation or an arm shortening for goalkeepers. The season is twice 20 minutes per game. If the ball is touched with the crutch, it counts like a handball. It is played on a small field on field hockey goals without outside. Presses are not allowed.
Menger used to play in the stadium on Bruchweg when Mainz 05 was a Biederer second division. The club now organized the first two match days of the amputated Bundesliga last weekend. The very rapid games looked at 300 spectators – applause again and again. “Everything was well organized-from folder service to the stadium speaker,” said co-trainer Jörg Schmidtke. He made contact behind the scenes to win ex-international Philipp Lahm as an ambassador.
Mainz in the Champions League
Immediately after the Bundesliga start, the Mainz continued in the Champions League. Against Real Betis from Spain, AFC Tbilisi from Georgia and Alves Kablo FK from Turkey. With international comparisons, playing in a much larger field is played in the seven-opposite seven-not in five against five. The tournament was held with eight teams in Ankara. Turkey missed Germany’s national team at the 2024 European Championship in the quarter -finals – the Mainz had set the largest block, but later than ninth qualified for the World Cup in Costa Rica in autumn 2026. It is currently still unclear how the expensive trip can be financed.
At the Bosphorus there is state funding and live broadcasts on television for amputee football. A few years ago, 40,000 spectators came to the European Championship final between Turkey and England. You then also see how the crutch is used to give signs for an allusion. But it is best when the metal poles clack. Because gates are cheered. Like that of Christian Heinz, with whom he shot Mainz 05 in the final against HSV in October last year.
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