A guest at the Luginsland School

Stuttgart – The UEFA EURO 2024 is fast approaching: There are just under 500 days to go until the first European Football Championship in 36 years kicks off in Germany between 14 June and 14 July 2024. World champion Philipp Lahm, who as Tournament Director is responsible for the preparations for UEFA EURO 2024, is naturally looking forward to a great football festival. Together with EURO ambassador Célia Šašić, he was a guest at the Luginsland School in Host City Stuttgart today, Tuesday. During this flying visit, the focus was on young talent and a project organised by Gemeinschaftserlebnis Sport (Experiencing Community Through Sport – GES) under the motto "Social skills with and through football".

For many years, GES has been a cooperation partner of the Stuttgarter Jugendhausgesellschaft (Stuttgart Youth Centre Society) offering a variety of sports education programmes outside of regular lessons in the form of all-day school activities, with the main focus on fostering and supporting social-emotional development processes. In total, participation projects take place on four out of five school days with around 250 hours of activities hosted at 70 locations per week. This offering is well received by the children, as they demonstrated today at the Luginsland School. Despite the holidays, nobody wanted to miss this event. After all, how often do you get the chance to meet a world champion and a two-time European champion in person?

The football-loving children, most of whom were in year three, were delighted. GES programme manager Thomas Krombacher, who is in charge of the group said: "Pupils from different cultures and with very different characters come together here. Outside, the sports field, this can quickly lead to problems. But what they have in common is a passion for football. This builds bridges and creates the opportunity to practice tolerant interaction with each another in a playful way."

This could be seen happening in real time during the games in the Luginsland School gymnasium. Philipp Lahm and Célia Šašić, who played in the same team, were right in the thick of it. The team formation lottery had made it so. The game was played in different formations from 1 vs. 1 to 4 vs. 4 and every time a team scored a goal, a change was made.

There was plenty of effort and fun on display, paired with beautiful one-two passes and a few goals. Who won? Not important: it wasn't the result that counted, but the joy of the game.

"Everyone there was filled with joy and passion, you could feel it the whole time and they recognised the forms of play quicker than we did." Phillip Lahm

After the final whistle, the kids swore to play fair. "It was nice, we didn't argue at all", said Tom to the group. A sentence that Philipp Lahm emphasised once again in the subsequent interview with the media. "Everyone there was filled with joy and passion, you could feel it the whole time and they recognised the forms of play quicker than we did." Célia Šašić said: "Playing with children is always great and if they stick to the rules, it's really fun."

For GES, the focus is on training and developing social skills in children and young people. Fairness, the ability to communicate and handling victories and defeats in the right way – that's what sport, and football in particular, teaches. Thomas Krombacher sees it as the task of his team to initiate these developments. "Today, the children can manage without a referee and are able to referee their own matches. We stay in the background and only intervene when necessary." The German Football Association (DFB) recognised the importance of working with children through GES in Stuttgart years ago. GES was honoured with the DFB Integration Award back in 2014.

"Our society needs a community experience such as the one offered by UEFA EURO 2024. This is important for the next generation. We have great hosts in Stuttgart and the other locations, all of which will make this European Championship a success with their ideas and concepts." Philipp Lahm and Célia Šašić

The visit by Philipp Lahm and Célia Šašić is part of a working visit to the Host City Stuttgart. A delegation from UEFA and EURO 2024 GmbH has been there since Monday, to gain an impression of the plans for the EURO in Stuttgart through numerous meetings and visits. The working visit is set to kick off with a tour of the stadium on Monday and will run until Friday (24 February). Stuttgart is the last stop on a tour of all ten host cities in Germany. Philipp Lahm and Célia Šašić are convinced: "Our society needs a community experience such as the one offered by UEFA EURO 2024. This is important for the next generation. We have great hosts in Stuttgart and the other locations, all of which will make this European Championship a success with their ideas and concepts."