• Sara Däbritz, Ann-Katrin Berger and Leonie Pankratz follow in the other places

• Marozsan successor to Ilkay Gündogan

There was plenty of suspense in this year’s voting for the audience award of the German Football Ambassador 2023. Dzsenifer Marozsan and Melanie Leupolz were in a neck-and-neck race for the coveted trophy until the very end. Well over 5,000 fans took part in the vote and chose Dzsenifer Marozsan of Olympique Lyon with 31.77% ahead of Melanie Leupolz of Chelsea FC with 31.13% as this year’s German Football Ambassador and thus Ilkay Gündogan’s successor. Gündogan, who moved from Manchester City to FC Barcelona this season, won the award last year. Behind Marozsan and Leupolz, Sara Däbritz (Olympique Lyon), Ann-Katrin Berger (Chelsea FC) and Leonie Pankratz of HJK Helsinki follow in the places.

After the votes were counted by FanQ, the exceptional player Dzsenifer Marozsan was even more delighted about the award: "For me, it’s a great award that I’m very happy about because it’s always important to me to be a serious, professional and authentic ambassador beyond the borders. Thank you to all my fans who have been supporting me so great for many years now. You guys are great!"

Only a few votes were missing for young mother Melanie Leupolz to equal the father of her child, because partner Sami Khedira was the first German Football Ambassador and winner of the Public Award in 2013; at that time still in the jersey of Real Madrid.

For the first time, the non-profit association Deutscher Fußball Botschafter e.V. 2023 nominated and selected exclusively women for its three categories as part of its theme year. The official award ceremony, along with the main prize and honorary prize categories, will not take place at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin this year, but on August 16 in Sydney as part of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. In Australia, it will also be revealed which social project will be supported by the winners‘ prize money. The President of Deutscher Fußball Botschafter e.V., Roland Bischof: "The preparations for  Australia also show how close and trusting our work is with our strategic partners Goethe Institut and the German Foreign Office, otherwise such a big impact would not be possible for us. Now the German national team just has to get as far as possible.”