Bibiana Steinhaus is set to become the first female referee to officiate in Bundesliga history on Sunday

Steinhaus will become the first woman ever to officiate in the German top flight after being named on the DFB’s list of referees for the 2017/18 Bundesliga season. She has plenty of experience, having refereed 80 games in Germany’s second tier, Bundesliga 2 for the last 10 years.

Among other prominent reactions, U.S. Women’s National Team midfielder and Best FIFA Women’s Player for 2016 Carli Lloyd celebrated Steinhaus’s debut:

Most recently Steinhaus took charge of one Bundesliga match a couple of weeks ago, as she refereed Bayern Munich's DFB Cup first round win over Chemnitz, where Franck Ribery pranked Steinhaus in her debut by untying her laces before a free kick (on which he also scored).

On Sunday, Steinhaus will become the first woman to serve as head referee not only in the Bundesliga, but in any of Europe's other top leagues: the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and Ligue 1. This is exciting and encouraging for the future of women in refereeing, and it should be only the beginning of things to come. We can only hope other top-flight leagues follow the Bundesliga’s lead sooner rather than later.