Alexandra Popp is good with people, animals and of course with the ball. Her career shows the progress that women’s football has made in the past ten years. When Popp played her first Champions League final in 2013, she was also training to be an animal keeper. When she plays her sixth Champions League final against FC Barcelona this Saturday (4 p.m. on ZDF and DAZN) in Eindhoven, she is the face and figurehead of her sport par excellence, captain of VfL Wolfsburg and the national team and probably the best paid professional player in Germany.
The attacker once inherited number nine from storm icon Birgit Prinz in the DFB selection, most recently she inherited the role as an eloquent frontwoman who was in demand everywhere from long-time teammate and goalkeeper Almuth Schult. What she says and how she says it is good for women’s football. Because their inputs, which are often demanding for the interests of their sport, are in line with consistently good performances on the pitch. “It was a stressful year, because a lot was flown in besides football,” says Popp. “And it was a good year because we were able to take the development of women’s football to a new level.” Which, in the eyes of the outside world, also has a lot to do with her.
Regular pop festivals
In the end, it was a real pop festival with a variety of interviews and television appearances, and it was also tightly scheduled. Everyone wants “Poppi”, as she is called everywhere. In the case of Wolfsburg, they have been trying for a while to get other (highly decorated national) players from their select squad into the front row in the media, in addition to their most opinionated campaigner, who once appeared self-deprecatingly with a glued-on mustache at a DFB press conference. Mostly in vain.
Which harbors potential for dissatisfaction among colleagues. The 127-time national player (61 goals) can be trusted not only to tare self-confident tones to the outside, but also to the inside and to unite. “I wish that the players who will be the future are shown more. I’m a bit older,” says 32-year-old Popp. She expressed her anger at a media round last week that there was still no agreement on televising the World Cup, which begins at the end of July. She castigated previous efforts as “empty words”. But the general rule is: “I open my mouth, also when it comes to critical issues. But I don’t always swim against the tide. That’s not right,” says Popp, who “feels very well balanced” between her roles as a champion on the pitch and at the microphones.
Athlete, fighter, team player
This season, Popp led the “wolves” to victory in the DFB Cup and to the European Cup final. In the Bundesliga, they scored the top scorer for the first time (16 goals this season). A season that will now lead to the World Championships in Australia and New Zealand. And that began in the summer of 2022 in those frenzied weeks at the European Championships in England, which had a formative effect on Popp’s career. Which illustrate well what a special athlete, fighter and team player she is.
“Don’t constantly swim against the current”: Alexandra Popp is the undisputed leader of the DFB team.
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Image: dpa
Now (sometimes serious) injuries are the dark side of their uncompromising and fearless style of play, their toughness towards opponents, but also towards themselves. Injuries prevented her from participating in the 2013 and 2017 European Championship tournaments, which the German team won in each case. Things also looked bad for the championship in England after eleven months of rehabilitation after a knee injury. With the leadership of the standing woman Popp and six goals from the chief dynamician Popp, the German team stormed into the final.
