Heading into the knockout stages of the IFAF Flag Football European Championships last summer, there was no doubt that Germany’s teams were among the contenders to take home a medal from Ireland. Both succeeded, with the men breaking Denmark’s incredible six-tournament winning streak to be crowned the champions of Europe for the first time.

Coach Florian Berrenberg’s charges emphatically saw off the challenge of Sweden (49-19) and Poland (45-6) before a clash with unbeaten Denmark to open the second day of competition. The Danes were edged 20-18 in Limerick and having disposed of Czechia 54-21 to top the challenging group, Germany headed into the playoffs as one of four unbeaten teams.

Italy was beaten 44-13 in the quarterfinals to set up an epic battle with high-scoring Israel, which was decided by the slimmest of margins as Germany triumphed 36-35 to earn a Gold Medal Game meeting with Austria.

The tournament’s only two unbeaten teams went toe to toe with a series of spectacular touchdown passes to delight a boisterous crowd at the University of Limerick.

Quarterback Benjamin Klever produced several highlight reel passes and when it came to a difference-maker, Germany had wide receiver Fabian Achenbach whose four-touchdown MVP performance proved the difference between two closely matched teams.

“I can’t really describe this,” said Klever. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I’ve been playing for the national team for 16 years and we’ve been close, and we’ve had good years, and this year it was our time.

“I knew if we played as well as we can, we could beat Austria. Obviously, they’re a good team, especially on defense and we just balled out on both sides of the ball and won.

“Now we have to go to the world championship to defend the European championship and we have high hopes against the great teams from overseas, so that’s our goal. We’ll keep improving our game. That’s what we've been doing the last three years since we started with this coaching group.”

Germany’s success sees the men positioned third in the 2023 IFAF Flag Football World Rankings behind only USA and Mexico heading into this summer’s ultimate tournament in Finland.

Germany’s women held the only unbeaten record after the first day of action in Limerick having beaten Austria (34-21), blanked hosts Ireland (56-0) and swept past Switzerland (40-12). Having moved to 4-0 on the second day by shutting out Finland (40-0), it was Spain who spoiled that perfect record and would ultimately deny Jona Winkel’s team a shot at the gold medal.

Having recovered from a 24-33 reverse against the defending European champions, Germany beat Italy by four points in the quarterfinals to set up a chance for revenge over Spain in the semifinals. Incredibly, Spain raced to a four-touchdown lead, and although shell-shocked Germany fought back, the deficit was too great and eventual silver medalists Spain held out to win 33-20.

The smiles returned to the faces of the team led by quarterback and Global Flag Football Ambassador Mona Stevens as Germany won bronze in a convincing 41-14 third place win over France. German’s women are currently ranked eighth in the world, just four rating points behind joint sixth placed Panama and Spain as they chase another medal in Lahti in August.