Horst Widmann has been honored by Puma for his achievements at the company and in the sporting goods industry over more than five decades. After several years in the toy industry, Widmann started off in the sports market in the early ‘seventies as a personal assistant of Adi Dassler, the cobbler from Herzogenaurach who established the Adidas brand. But in 1990, when this side of the Dassler family decided to sell Adidas, he switched to its arch-rival, Puma. The nearly 77-year-old spent the last 27 years at Puma, where he is regarded as a “minister of foreign affairs.” Lauding his commitment to the company and the industry, Puma indicated that his contacts in Eastern Europe and Africa had been particularly useful in bringing football teams and players from these areas to Puma, supporting its position among the top three football brands. Bjørn Gulden, Puma's chief executive, gave Widmann a golden version of the Puma King football boot at a party with colleagues, friends and other significant people in his life. Beyond his function as counsel for football at Puma, Widmann used his diplomatic skills in the wider sporting goods industry. He was president of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (Fesi) for ten years until 2012, and also vice president of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) from 1998 until 2004.

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