Para kicker puts "leg in the corner" and defies all resistance
"Pick up your crutches and play soccer." That is Ralf Stellfeld's motto. The striker is the first footballer with an amputated leg to be given permission to play in the regular league. How did the district league footballer manage this?
The tall striker lurks in front of goal and receives an assist. He reacts with lightning speed, stretches out his right leg and bends the ball between the two posts. Goal! It's just an ordinary training match on the gravel pitch of TSV Timmerlah in Braunschweig. But it is still something special: attacker Ralf Stellfeld has an amputated leg. While his teammates sprint across the pitch without any restrictions, Stellfeld is the only player to move across the pitch with walking aids.
This year, the 43-year-old has achieved something new in Germany: he received a player's pass in the summer, making him the first footballer with an amputated leg to be approved by the Lower Saxony Football Association for regular match operations. "I didn't believe it at first," he said after training, visibly exhausted. "But then I got the information that I would be playing in the next home game."
Stellfeld plays for SG Braunschweig-West, an over-40 team made up of three clubs from the region that plays in the district league. There are other footballers with amputations who play for other clubs. However, they only take part in training, explained Stellfeld. "In any case, I'm the first one who is eligible to play."
"Nothing for a long time after my accident"
His coach Jan Geppert made contact with the Lower Saxony Football Association and submitted an application for a player's pass. However, it took some time before he was eligible to play. "It took a while because there were no regulations. Nobody knew exactly what would happen if someone got injured. Nobody knew exactly what the rules of the game were," says TSV Timmerlah chairman Ulf Wegener. "Then we kept asking and suddenly the player's pass was there. Then he could play."
Stellfeld had already played soccer as a child. At the age of 17, he had a serious motorcycle accident on his way to work. He lost his left leg and has been dependent on a prosthesis or crutches ever since.
"Then there was nothing for a long time after my accident," he said. It took around 20 years before he was finally drawn back to soccer. In 2018, Stellfeld ended up playing amputee soccer with Sportfreunde Braunschweig. "The first training session was really nasty," he remembers with a smile. "I couldn't move for two days. I'd never had so much muscle soreness in my life before."
Nevertheless, Stellfeld continued to train and made it into the German Amputee Football League for Spielgemeinschaft Nord-Ost. He has also played for the German national team.
"Slower on three legs than on two"
However, because Bundesliga training only took place once a month, he started training at TSV Timmerlah last year. "I came here, everyone was a stranger and made me feel very welcome," he reported. "They first had to learn to play the ball on my right foot instead of my left." The opponents also had to adapt to the new situation: "At the beginning, they were more and more timid in tackles."
Stellfeld has already scored a goal in a match. And in terms of the rules, the crutch counts as an extended arm. If the ball touches the crutch, it is counted as a handball. "Of course, the two-legged players are always faster than me with crutches," he said. But he tries to compensate for this with good positioning.
His teammates are also happy about the addition to the team: "The teamwork with Ralf works very well," said fellow striker Wegener. "It's slower on three legs than on two. So we've decided that Ralf will stay up front and the others will have to run more."
For the President of the German Disabled Sports Association, Friedhelm Julius Beucher, this case shows what top sporting performances people with disabilities are capable of. "Examples like this should set a precedent and perhaps also remove the barriers that some people and associations have when it comes to allowing players with disabilities to play in their clubs."
Being a role model for amputees
In athletics, many athletes from the para-sport sector train together with Olympic athletes, said Beucher. They also compete against each other in competitions. The fact that Stellfeld's case is still unique in soccer shows that there are still many barriers in people's minds. "The top priority must be: To make participation possible wherever possible."
Stellfeld also hopes that he will soon no longer be the only amputee allowed to play regularly. "I'm happy to have opened this gap in the DFB," he said. "Maybe now there will be an impetus for one or two others to join in and there will be more and more of them. I hope that more and more amputees will dare to put their leg in the corner, pick up their crutches and play soccer."
Stellfeld's goals for the future are big. He wants to achieve promotion with his team next year. The European Amputee Football Championship will also take place in 2024. "I'm trying to get really fit so that I can be there then."
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- Despite his crutches, Ralf Stellfeld demonstrates that people with disabilities can excel in soccer, proving that he can score just like any other player.
- Inspired by Ralf Stellfeld's achievements, more amputees might be encouraged to try soccer, picking up their crutches and joining local leagues, aiming to defy expectations and prove their ability on the field.
Source: www.ntv.de
