Goalkeeper Merle Frohms brings calm to the team

IYour image of Frankfurt as the new center of life is still incomplete for Merle Frohms, she says. The route that she usually cycles between her Rödelheim apartment and the training grounds on the Rebstock is not the best way to bring her closer to the beauties of her new home. But Merle Frohms came mainly because of the good sporting prospects.

Because of the prospect of soon playing internationally with the women’s football division of Frankfurt Eintracht and to maintain their number one status with the national team until the European Championship in 2022. Having won the German national goalkeeper for himself was undisputedly the queen transfer of Eintracht this summer.

In the EM qualification with the DFB selection, the 25-year-old has conceded exactly zero goals so far. In the Bundesliga there are two goals against after four match days. Frohms started at 17 in her home town of Celle in a boys’ team. Most of their goalkeeping coaches came from the male division. Most of them would have acted “according to the motto ‘hit it’”, says Merle Frohms. Why Frankfurt now? “Eintracht sees added value through women’s football and gives the project time. I can identify with that very well. ”What the native of Lower Saxony particularly appreciates after her first few weeks at the SGE: how well-coordinated the team is. “The core has been working together for a long time, so we no longer have to deal with the basics, but can work much more specifically. We are still a young team, but you cannot deny that we have a lot of quality and potential in the squad, ”says Merle Frohms.

Ready for leadership

In the last duels with the women from Frankfurt during their days in Freiburg, she still had the impression that the Hessians were a young, but also unstructured troop. In addition to her reputation as a national goalkeeper, bringing more experience to the jittery collective – that is also part of it. The national coach had already suggested that she could become even louder and stronger in opinion for a leadership role, including in the DFB team. Merle Frohms made her way there in the selection and association, as she says. “Even if in my private life it doesn’t necessarily correspond to my character to make the big speeches.”

In her Wolfsburg years, national goalkeeper Almuth Schulth, who finally replaced the Frohms in the German goal because of her baby break, was clearly in front of her in the hierarchy. “One of the things I learned from Almuth was that you don’t have to be the most popular goalkeeper on the team. That clear announcements are needed because you are at the very back the one who has to pay for mistakes, ”says Merle Frohms. The years at Wolfsburg Bank have given her many title wins, of which her share was small. “I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t experienced that. It was a maturing process for me to learn, to wait and to give myself and the thing time ”, says Frohms, who only looks back on the experience of 54 Bundesliga and eleven international matches. She experienced her finest hour in the DFB dress last November at an international match against England in Wembley with 78,000 spectators. Before their eyes, she parried a penalty in a spectacular manner.

Recently, Eintracht occupied the goals of both national teams in international matches with Merle Frohms and Kevin Trapp. But she doesn’t like men’s football. “Too much drama, acting and discussions on the pitch,” says the 1.75 meter tall professional player. “In my opinion, women’s football is a sport in itself and shouldn’t be too oriented towards men’s football.” Dealing with other things outside of the field, for example with her business studies, helps her “not to lose touch with reality. In football you tend to live in a bubble. “