Christa Kleinhans

* 22 July 1937, Dortmund
Attack

Clubs as a player:
1954–1955 Grün-Weiß Dortmund
1955–1965 Fortuna Dortmund

Club:
German champions: competition started in 1974
DFB Cup winners: competition started in 1981

National team:
0 matches, 0 goals

Christa Kleinhans was a player in the legendary Fortuna Dortmund team, which existed as an all-women’s football club between 1955 and 1965. During the period when women’s football was banned, Kleinhans played in around 150 unofficial international matches.
In 1957, on her international debut against a Dutch selection in front of 18,000 spectators in Munich, she scored two goals as a right winger, playing a key role in the 4–2 victory. Her teammates praised the winger for her excellent technique and a strong instinct for goal.
Occasionally
, her lively temperament got the better of her, which is why she was occasionally sent off. This versatile athlete had already demonstrated her talent before her football career, first as a track and field athlete and later as a handball player, where she even went on to become a Bundesliga goalkeeper.
“To
advance women’s football, we obviously couldn’t allow ourselves to be made a laughing stock. Entertaining people wasn’t our aim. Our passion for football and our belief in our talent spurred us on to take up the fight against the ban on women’s football,” says the outstanding pioneer, who, with great determination, paved the way for future generations.

The German Football Hall of Fame was established on the initiative of the German Football Museum. In November 2018 and January 2019, leading sports journalists voted to select the inaugural men’s and women’s teams. The jury members were asked to nominate their choice of players and managers from German men’s and women’s football. Players who were eligible to play for German national teams and whose playing careers had ended at least five years previously were eligible for nomination. The HALL OF FAME honours the greatest legends of German football in one central location for the first time. It forms part of the permanent exhibition at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. Opened on 1 April 2019, it has become a permanent place of pilgrimage for all football fans. The jury decides annually on further inductees from men’s and women’s football.