National team
New captain Gwinn is disrupting her image as an influencer
Wants to impress with sporting success: Giulia Gwinn. photo
© Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa/Archive
Giulia Gwinn will lead the DFB team as captain for the first time against Austria. In an interview, the Munich native talks about her social media activities and her tactics for penalties.
Gwinn has 600,000 followers on Instagram. In the European Championship qualifying game, the 24-year-old will represent the injured captain Alexandra Popp from VfL Wolfsburg in the evening (8.30 p.m./ARD) in Linz and on Tuesday in Aachen against Iceland.
“The social media activities are a nice side thing for me, but my focus is clearly on sport,” said Gwinn, who is facing her 42nd international match against Austria. However, your network activities are important for your own marketing. She designs the account herself and the focus is not just on sporting topics: “Of course I’m a young woman who also posts things that are important to me outside of the stadiums.”
Gwinn reveals penalty secret
Gwinn sees her new role as captain as a logical consequence: “I believe that over the years I have grown into a role in which I can show that I am ready to take on responsibility.”
She already does that with penalties. Her secret: “I don’t think too hard about the execution, I stick to the corner that I chose in advance and then carry it out with conviction.” She has never missed a penalty, neither in competitive nor in friendly matches.
With a view to the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, she and interim national coach Horst Hrubesch’s team have big goals: “We are ready for anything, you just have to look at the quality of the squad. We are always a force to be reckoned with.” said the legal defender. “We all want more and we are willing to reach for a medal.” In the preliminary round, the German selection will face the four-time world champions USA, Australia, Zambia and Morocco.
Lessons from injuries
In the interview, Gwinn also spoke about the cruciate ligament tears she suffered in 2020 and 2022 and the consequences. “My body awareness is no longer the same. I invest more time in the preparation and follow-up of the training sessions,” said the Munich native.
Since her first cruciate ligament tear, she has been working with a mental coach who has helped her “to deal with pressure situations in such a way that they don’t put a strain on me. In retrospect, I have to say that I would have been happy if I had tried it out before my injury. “