Germany’s new Kabaddi team embraces learning experience in first World Cup

The Germany women’s national kabaddi team are participating in the Women’s Kabaddi World Cup for the first time, held from November 17 to 24 at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur.

 Although they have lost all their group matches, the players and officials remain positive, treating the tournament as an important learning experience. Germany arrived with nine players instead of the usual 14 due to rescheduled fixtures, with several withdrawing at the last moment.

Following the game, University of Stuttgart Sports Management student Emma Attle described the team’s main objective. Emma said the team is new to competitive Kabaddi and is still learning the sport’s basics, including its rules. She added that since it's their first World Cup, their main goal is to enjoy the experience.

“This is the first time we have come to the World Cup, and it's our first time in any competitive tournament," she said. "It hasn't been a year since we started learning Kabaddi. We are learning a lot here—you could say, even the rules of the game. We are here to enjoy Kabaddi,” Emma said.

The team was formed less than a year ago, and kabaddi is still an amateur sport in Germany, with only 30 to 40 female players who mainly train on weekends in Stuttgart and Nuremberg.

“We only started recently. Right now, there are 30-40 players. The game is only popular in two cities. In the future, perhaps Kabaddi will be practiced all over Germany. We too will one day be able to organise Pro Kabaddi in our country. Our girls will play. We will all become professionals,” Emma added.

Despite their early struggles, the team is motivated to popularise kabaddi back home and hopes the sport will grow professionally in Germany, inspired by their warm reception in Bangladesh.