The NFL has consistently been signaling its intention to continue growing its international presence. It will take another step in 2025 by staging its first regular-season game in Berlin, the vanguard of a multi-year commitment with Germany’s capital city.
“Germany has a rich tradition of American football, and the NFL has a deep history with the city of Berlin,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
“We first held a preseason game at the Olympic Stadium 34 years ago, before it was home to NFL Europe’s Berlin Thunder in the early 2000s. Now, with almost 20 million NFL fans in Germany, we’ll make a historic return to the city playing a regular season game for the first time as we open the next chapter in our relationship with Berlin.”
The announcement occurred Wednesday morning in conjunction with the league’s annual winter meeting, which is occurring in Irving, Texas, this year.
The Olympic Stadium that Goodell referred to is the same one that originally opened for the 1936 Summer Olympics – which are widely remembered for being hosted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party and for the memorable performance by American track and field star Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at those Games. The venue, which underwent significant renovations that were completed 20 years ago, has long been the home of the second-tier Bundesliga club Hertha Berlin and has regularly hosted major international soccer matches, including in the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups and the 2011 Women’s World Cup. The NFL also held five preseason games there in the 1990s.
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The NFL has been playing games in Germany since 2022, four games split between Frankfurt and Munich.
But the league’s overseas footprint continues to creep, and it could play up to eight games abroad next season. Berlin will join Madrid as the latest cities the NFL will visit after São Paulo made its debut earlier this year. London will also host at least two games next year. The participating teams and times are usually revealed in the spring.
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