The National Football League will play its first-ever regular season game in Berlin next season as it continues to prioritise global growth of the game and expand its global footprint.

The 2025 Berlin game will, as was rumoured at the time of this year’s encounter between the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers in Munich, be played at the city’s Olympic Stadium, as the NFL enters a multi-year commitment to playing games in the burgeoning sports metropolis.

Whoever ends up playing in the capital won’t be the first to tread the turf there, however, as the NFL held five American Bowl games at the Olympic Stadium between 1990 and 1994, prior to staging regular season games as part of the modern International Series in both Munich and Frankfurt since 2022. Next year’s game in Berlin will be the fifth regular season game held in Germany but the first in the German capital, which was also home to NFL Europe’s Berlin Thunder from 2003-07.

“Germany has a rich tradition of American football, and the NFL has a deep history with the city of Berlin,” commissioner Roger Goodell noted. “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.”

In addition to the game itself, the NFL will work with the Berlin Senate across their major sports development programme to grow and develop flag football in the city’s schools and clubs.

“This long-term partnership with the NFL will continue to boost Berlin as a global sports metropolis, as well as excite fans at the Olympic Stadium,” said the State of Berlin senator for the interior and sports, Iris Spranger. “The 2025 NFL Berlin game means worldwide visibility, numerous international guests, increased tourism and high economic value across the city. We’re looking forward to an incredible game and an ongoing successful partnership with the league, as we continue to strengthen the presence of American football throughout the state.”

The Olympic Stadium not only hosted the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, but has also been graced by the FIFA Men’s World Cup (1974 and 2006), a FIFA Women’s World Cup (2011), six UEFA Euro 2024 matches, including the final, and world and European athletics championships. The venue is currently home of the Bundesliga club Hertha BSC.

Beginning in 2025, the NFL’s 32 franchises have agreed to the scheduling of up to eight international regular season games per season. A commitment to playing two regular season games in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one game in Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium – home to Real Madrid C.F., have already been announced for 2025, while other games and locations will be confirmed in the weeks and months ahead, amid rumours of a return to Mexico City and Brazil, as well as a possible first International Series game in Ireland, at either the Aviva Stadium or Croke Park in Dublin. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears played a preseason game at the latter in 1997 and the Steelers have long made a play to return to the Irish capital.

The NFL will announce participating teams, schedule and ticket information for the Berlin game in the coming months, but fans can register their interest in attending at nfl.com/berlin.