NFL will hold first regular-season game in Berlin in 2025 season

The NFL has consistently signaled its intention to continue growing professional football's international presence. That effort will take another step in 2025 as the league stages its first regular-season game in Berlin as the initiation 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 – held this year in Irving, Texas.

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 showcased major international soccer matches, including the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups and 2011 Women's World Cup. The NFL previously played five preseason games there in the 1990s.

Since then, the league has presented wildly successful regular-season games in Germany since 2022, four games split between Munich and Frankfurt. And while the visiting teams rotate through, the constant throughline of those contests has been tens of thousands of fans belting out John Denver's iconic song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as part of the in-game festivities.

Overall, the league's overseas footprint continues to creep, and it could play up to eight games abroad next season. Berlin will join Madrid in 2025 as the latest cities the NFL will visit after São Paulo made its debut this season. London will also host at least two games next year. The participating teams and times for the International Series are revealed in the spring, typically before the main schedule release.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL Berlin game: First regular-season contest heads to city in 2025