Change your faces, gentlemen, become sportsmen, and help restore to the weary and torn world the true peace that can rest solely on the understanding of nations and whose symbol is the world-conquering darling and the remedy of youth: the little yellow leather ball, is, was and will be.

Source: Walther Bensemann – Der Kicker, April 19, 1921

These words were written more than 100 years ago by the very person in whose memory the International Walther Bensemann Memorial Tournament will take place in 2025 at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt am Main. Walther Bensemann — founder of kicker, co-founder and namesake of the German Football Association (DFB), pioneer of football, and initiator of the first international matches — is the figure to whom this tournament is dedicated.

Organized by the German Football Association and Makkabi Germany, in cooperation with the initiative !Nie wieder, around 120 U17 players from six top teams from Germany, across Europe, and Israel will compete against each other and, together with numerous Holocaust survivors and committed companions, carry forward Walther Bensemann’s vision.

On the football pitch, in discussions, lectures, workshops, and shared evenings, all participants and supporters will stand together for a Europe defined by justice, tolerance, humanity, and peace.