DFB captain
Alexandra Popp ends her career in the national team “in tears”
For Alexandra Popp it’s probably goodbye to the national team
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Alexandra Popp’s 145 international matches will be over on October 28th: the DFB women will have to play without “Poppi” in the future. But her contract is still running in Wolfsburg.
Captain Alexandra Popp has announced her resignation from the national team. Germany’s three-time footballer of the year will not continue her international career under new national coach Christian Wück and will forego taking part in the 2025 European Championship in Switzerland. The 33-year-old will play her 145th and final international match against Australia in Duisburg on October 28th.
“For a total of 18 years, including almost fourteen and a half years in the senior team, I had the good fortune and great honor to proudly wear the jersey of the German national team,” said Popp. “I have always emphasized that my gut will make the decision, and now it has decided. After long, tearful deliberations, it is with a heavy heart that I have decided to end my national team career.”
Popp has so far scored 67 goals in 144 international matches. She is considered a figure of identification and a pioneer for her sport far beyond the pitch. Her contract with VfL Wolfsburg, for whom she has played since 2012, is valid until June 30 next year.
Alexandra Popp won two Olympic medals
The footballer, who was born in Witten, celebrated her greatest triumph with the 2016 Olympic victory. At the Summer Games in France, Popp was the only remaining German player from Rio and, with the selection of interim coach Horst Hrubesch, won bronze with a 1-0 win in the game for third place against them World champions from Spain.
After the final whistle in Lyon, Popp lay on the grass crying uncontrollably. “Of course we are extremely happy,” Popp later described the feeling of the entire team with a broad smile. She left her future with the DFB women open at the time, but the current decision comes as no surprise. In the past, Popp has repeatedly been plagued by problems in her “cartilaginous knee,” as she herself said, citing a previous serious injury, and her heel.
The new DFB coach Wück has to initiate change
Popp had already expressed thoughts of resigning after the 2022 European Championships in England and the botched 2023 World Cup in Australia. With second place at the European Championships two years ago, the state-certified animal keeper became a star, even though she was injured in the final against the host team (1:2). She was the first woman ever to be named Personality of the Year by the trade magazine “Kicker”. She had repeatedly fought for better conditions in women’s football and denounced deficits.
Historical images
Of adverse beginnings and European dominance – the history of German women’s football
Wück will make his debut as the new women’s head coach on October 25th at Wembley against European champions England. He now has to initiate a major change, as Popp’s Wolfsburg club colleagues Marina Hegering and Merle Frohms also recently announced their resignation.
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