Holstein Kiel Women

Sarah Begunk has worn the captain's armband at Holstein Kiel's women's side since 2012, when the club's board proposed cutting the women's department loose so resources could go to the men. The plan drew public protest in Kiel and from local politicians, and it was withdrawn. The women stayed inside KSV Holstein von 1900 — on the understanding that the department would fund itself.

That arrangement has held since. The department, set up in 2004, now runs two senior sides alongside U17, U15 and U13 teams, and it plays out of the Holstein-Stadion, the same 15,034-capacity ground as the men. The blue, white and red are borrowed from Schleswig-Holstein rather than invented for the club.

The season that finally moved the team upwards was 2025/26. Kiel won the Frauen-Regionalliga Nord and went into the play-off for a place in the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga. Kira Hasse finished as the division's leading scorer with 21 goals in 22 matches — a return that carried a side which had spent years in the third tier of German women's football.

The regional league also gave Kiel the fixture the club treats as its derby, against HSV II, the Hamburger SV reserve side. Nobody has given the match a name, and the geography does not really support one.