Kimmich, Goretzka given honorary German Football Ambassador awards for #WeKickCorona

Both Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka have been given honorary German Football Ambassador awards for their efforts with the #WeKickCorona campaign to help the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic (DW). The initiative was started by the pair of Bayern Munich players 3 weeks ago and has already received over 3-million Euros worth of donations that have been distributed to charitable associations and social institutions ranging from food banks to medical equipment in hospitals and medical centers.

Fellow Bundesliga players have already shown support and have made donations to #WeKickCorona including Mats Hummels, Jonas Hector, Julian Brandt, Timo Werner, Lars Stindl, Jonathan Tah, Sven Ulreich, Nils Peterson, and Lukas Klostermann, among others. Hansi Flick and former Bayern manager Niko Kovac have also showed their support and have made donations. German athletes outside of football have even joined the cause.

The German Football Ambassador award was founded back in 2012 in an aim to honor and recognize German athletes who make a meaningful impact on the scope of German sport to the rest of the world. In addition to the athletes, there’s also a coaches category, which was won by Liverpool manager and former Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp last year along with Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The German Football Ambassador Association was founded by Roland Bischof, who recently described the work Kimmich and Goretzka have been doing with #WeKickCorona as showing their “initiative on behalf of all those who, through their commitment, are supporting this great project in order to provide rapid assistance.”

Unfortunately, the official award ceremony where both Kimmich and Goretzka would formally receive their awards was scheduled to take place in May, but with the current state of the pandemic, the ceremony has been cancelled. The organizers of the ceremony are, however, looking for alternatives as to where and when they can host the award ceremony, which will all depend on when the pandemic finally dies down for the time being. Still, though, it doesn’t take away from the extraordinary work that Kimmich and Goretzka have done with their initiative and they’re setting a leading example of what athletes across the globe can, and should be doing to help in fighting this pandemic.