Steffi Jones

Steffi Jones is one of the most successful and well-known German female soccer players and has broken new ground even after her playing career ended.

She drew attention with her departure from the DFB and her public criticism of existing structures. In particular, she addressed issues of gender equality, leadership, and the willingness to embrace change in German soccer. Steffi Jones made it clear that she rules out a return to the DFB under unchanged personnel and structural conditions.

Respect and Fair Play: Why We Need to Rethink Diversity, How We Deal with Mistakes, and Leadership.

Steffi Jones is far more than just a former soccer player and coach. She embodies the courage to forge her own path, take responsibility, and stand her ground even within strongly male-dominated structures.

In her talks and presentations, she discusses what she has learned in elite sports about teamwork, self-confidence, discipline, and leadership. She illustrates which principles can be applied to the workplace, how leadership works from her perspective, and why defeats, setbacks, and new beginnings can be crucial for personal and professional development.

Steffi Jones Lecture topics

• Diversity, Integration & Tolerance
• Expert on soccer topics
• Women in leadership positions
• Life story & strokes of fate
• Everything about competitive sports, personality development through sports
• Respect, fair play, imparting values

Steffi Jones discovered her passion for soccer early on and that she could play better than the boys. She became European champion several times and world champion once. After she ended her active soccer career, she played behind the scenes. As national coach of the German women’s national team and as director of women’s and girls’ soccer. With her strong criticism of the DFB, she turned her back on the club.

In 2022, Steffi Jones will oversee a project at FIFA on her heartfelt topic of promoting young talent. So she returns to professional soccer in a new role and environment. Her main job is managing organizational development at the IT service 5Minds and she lives with her wife and five dogs in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Stephanie Ann “Steffi” Jones – World Champion 2003 and three-time European Champion, is one of the most successful German soccer players of all time.

She ended her active career in 2007, and on January 1, 2008, Steffi Jones was appointed President of the Organizing Committee of the Women’s World Cup 2011. “We are delighted that in Steffi Jones we have been able to win over a recognized and successful national player as President of the OC 2011,” said then DFB President Dr. Theo Zwanziger.

The OC President, who was also seen as a counterpart to Franz Beckenbauer, the President of the OC for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, is intensively committed to women’s soccer. In view of the great development of women’s soccer and the enormous opportunities offered by hosting the 2011 World Cup in her own country, Steffi Jones was very happy to accept the challenge as OC President and all the associated tasks.

After completing this activity, for which she was honored several times, her appointment as “Director of Women’s and Girls’ Football” at the DFB followed. “Not least because of her many title wins and her social commitment, the former head defender of the DFB team is an equally popular and respected figure in German sport. Steffi Jones is a recognized and valued representative both nationally and internationally, not only because of her professional expertise but also because of her likeable and natural manner,” said DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach.

In 2006, Steffi Jones received the Hessian Order of Merit for her many years of voluntary work. Time and again, the daughter of a German mother and an American soldier has campaigned for integration and tolerance in Germany.

Steffi Jones’ path has not always been a steep one. She grew up without a father in the troubled Frankfurt district of Bonames. In kindergarten and during her first years at school, she was teased because of her skin color. Her older brother Christian became a delinquent and drug addict. In November 2006, the family had to cope with a heavy blow. At the age of 22, her “little” brother Frank, a soldier in the U.S. armed forces, lost both legs in a bomb attack while deployed in Iraq.

Steffi Jones made the right choice and put her energy and passion into soccer. For her, the game with the leather ball became the stuff that really big dreams are made of – dreams that would later become reality for Steffi Jones.

Steffi Jones was the football ambassador for the host city of Gelsenkirchen for the 2024 European Men’s Championship in Germany.