She is something like Frankfurt’s chief dynamic specialist. When she speeds up with the ball at her feet, she seems like a force, sometimes almost unstoppable for her opponents. When the ball comes to Nicole Anyomi, the Eintracht women’s viewer knows: Watch out, something is about to happen.
A lot is happening in the 24-year-old’s life away from the football field. On the one hand, there is her own fashion brand, which she founded – “I’ve wanted to do that since I graduated from high school,” she says – and whose first collection is due to come out shortly. “It will suit me,” says Anyomi with a smile, she only wants to reveal this much at the moment: The first step will be T-shirt creations, colorful and cheerful, with the look of nineties streetwear.
The brand will be called “Etonam,” Anyomi’s middle name, which means “God has answered me.” For the past two years, she, who was born in Krefeld and is the daughter of a Ghanaian mother and a Togolese father, has been completing a distance learning course in fashion management alongside professional football.
Anyomi has been playing for the SGE for two and a half years. Whether she will continue to do so beyond the summer is another big question in her life (if she hasn’t already answered that question for herself). The offensive player’s contract expires at the end of June. The fact that it had not yet been extended in the second week of March initially speaks in favor of a departure for Anyomi, who has come to the fore with good international performances in the Champions League this season. Anyomi did not want to comment specifically on this matter to the FAZ, but mentioned “ongoing contract negotiations”. With Eintracht? “Yes,” Anyomi said. A club spokesman confirmed the discussions. The situation is similar for the SGE with 23-year-old Sophia Kleinherne, whose working paper also ends this summer. It would be two painful losses for aspiring national players who are entering their prime as footballers.
Anyomi currently sees herself in the transition from “the talent and chick” that she has been for years, having made her debut in the Bundesliga in Essen at the age of 16. “I still feel young, but I’m on the way to becoming an established, seasoned force,” said the national player. “I have grown into a role at Eintracht in which I take on more responsibility and move forward more. I want to confirm that with performance,” says Anyomi.
“I’m not a header monster yet”
She is needed in top form this Saturday (1 p.m.) to give Eintracht’s Bundesliga round a fresh look and shine. A home win against champions Bayern Munich was needed to get even closer to the almost eternal top duo in German women’s football, FCB and VfL Wolfsburg. The next meeting will follow in three weeks – then on the Isar in the cup semi-finals.
Like Eintracht, the Munich team was eliminated in the group stage in the European Cup, but they are already 31 games unbeaten in the Bundesliga across the seasons and are also very strong in defense (only four goals conceded this season). It will also depend on Anyomi’s storm and urge forward to find spaces and gaps. In any case, the backdrop for the top game of third against first will be magnificent in the stadium at Brentanobad. Over 5,000 spectators are expected.
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In the first leg, the SGE managed a goalless draw in Munich. Anyomi feels “inspired by the memories” of the duel in the Rödelheimer Stadium two and a half years ago. Back then, after a difficult start in Frankfurt – she had moved from Essen to the Main with a serious injury – she was just getting going when she came on as a substitute against Bayern with the score 1-2. The match, which was turned into a 3-2 win by two late goals, released emotions and happiness that had not been seen in the Brentanobad for a long time.
She could have recently done without emotions that Anyomi described as “disappointing”. Interim national coach Horst Hrubesch had left the offensive player, who previously seemed to have a flat rate on national team nominations, out of the decisive games for the Olympic qualification. A controversial decision, because not many in German women’s football have such physicality combined with high speed, which can also be effective in a short stint.
Anyomi took advantage of the unusual international break, as she says, to slow down a bit after many weeks in England. And working on weaknesses. What exactly? “I’m not a header monster yet,” she says with a smile. At the next opportunity she wants to show Hrubesch, who was once definitely one, that she can become one.
