Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, Arsenal's Mesut Ozil receive German honours

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann has been named as the 2015 German Football Ambassador, with Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil and former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger also honoured at a ceremony in Berlin on Tuesday night.

Klinsmann, 50, was named as the winner of the main prize during the awards ceremony at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin after being shortlisted alongside Israel's under-21 coach Michael Ness and long-serving coach Eckhard Krautzun.

The U.S. national team coach, who is in Amsterdam ahead of the upcoming friendly against Germany next week, was honoured in a speech by German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as "a clean ambassador, needed especially in these times" after Sepp Blatter resigned as FIFA president amid the ongoing corruption scandal.

Klinsmann said via video feed: "I'd like to thank you all. I will continue to go on my path, and will try and represent us well and likeable abroad. That's a promise."

The former Germany coach announced in January that he would donate any potential monetary prize to the "Soccer for Success" programme run by the El Monte Community Building Initiative in Los Angeles, which is supported by the U.S. Soccer Foundation.

With Sir Alex Ferguson, DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach and former Germany international Arne Friedrich in attendance, Arsenal midfielder Ozil beat 10 others including Mirsolav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker to the players' prize.

Former Germany international Hitzlsperger received the Honorary German Football Ambassador award for his courage to speak out about his sexuality in 2014, and thus initiate a public discussion about homosexuality in football.

"The award makes me very proud," Hitzlsperger said in quotes reported by Deutsche Welle. "It's a motivation to keep trying to bring the ideas and values of German football abroad. The exchange of opinions I experienced at my various stations abroad was truly invaluable."

The Deutscher Fussball Botschafter (German Football Ambassador) initiative was founded by German marketing and sponsoring expert Roland Bischof. The initiative honours the work of managers and players each year by joining culture and sport.

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