Children’s PK on Hafenstrasse

Kinder-PK an der Hafenstraße
Kinder-PK an der Hafenstraße

FtK program sponsor and RWE fan favourite Felix Herzenbruch answered questions from the FtK kids from the north of Essen at a children’s press conference last week. He passed the barrage of questions from the remarkably well-prepared children with flying colors.

Naturally, the children’s press conference took place in the real Rot-Weiss Essen press conference room and the necessary equipment such as microphones and notepads were also provided. The curious pupils from the fifth and sixth grades of Gesamtschule Essen Nord were full of questions such as “Are Schalke and RWE players actually enemies?”, “How long have you been at Rot-Weiss Essen?” or “Which dream club have you always wanted to play for?” When Felix Herzenbruch told them that Arjen Robben was the strongest opponent of his career to date, the children could only marvel. Of course, the obligatory autographs and a few selfies were not to be missed at the end.

Our cooperation partner Tani Capitain, CSR Manager of Rot-Weiss Essen, as well as our teacher for skills lessons, Büsra Sahin, and soccer coach Masataka Fukuoka, who works as a junior coach at Essen’s youth performance center, were also present.

© RWE

The children’s press conference made it particularly clear why the involvement of soccer clubs in “Fußball trifft Kultur” is an important part of promoting education. The professional soccer environment manages to motivate children to participate in the program, especially because many children have a connection to their home club. Tani Capitain was all the more pleased with the successful event: “It’s great that the kids have now been informed so extensively by Felix Herzenbruch at their own children’s conference. The preparation for the questions and the engagement with Rot-Weiss Essen is a successful project work.”

And the next extracurricular highlight will soon follow when the children are allowed to run in with the professionals in front of thousands of spectators in the stadium on Hafenstrasse.

News from the Johann-Daniel-Preißler-School

Neues aus der Johann-Daniel-Preißler-Schule
Neues aus der Johann-Daniel-Preißler-Schule

On Tuesday, 14.3.2023, the program included the twice-weekly FtK rules offer of skills lessons and soccer training. The 25 children from years 5 and 6 who were supported this school year were very committed to the program and gave an insight into their current perceptions and feelings about the program and their personal developments associated with it.

In the form of mini-interviews, we wanted to get an impression of how the children at Johann-Daniel-Preißler-Schule find their way around the program, what they particularly enjoy, what they work on individually and what they take away from the program in particular. Remarkable and at the same time unsurprising was the perceptible anticipation among all the children for the final tournament in Duisburg in June, where all the FtK groups from all over Germany will come together to play soccer for the FtK Cup and to exchange ideas. It was also noticeable that many children felt that teamwork and fair and functional group behavior, which is practiced and taught above all in soccer training, were very important.

In skills lessons, a soccer quiz was on the agenda that day to improve the children’s reading skills. This was followed as usual by the “second half” of our support program, soccer training. The focus here is on various team exercises to promote social and integrative group behavior. As a small highlight at the end of the day, the children were allowed to celebrate the goals they scored with their favorite goal celebration in front of the camera as part of a goal-scoring unit just as true soccer professionals should.

Images: LitCam/Witters