With Alexandra Popp, the star of the European Football Championship was found before the final. She also has goals in mind off the pitch.
With her six goals in five games so far, Alexandra Popp (31) is the difference player at this year’s European Football Championship for women. After their double in the game against France on Tuesday evening, next Sunday (July 31, 6:00 p.m.) they face the English in the final. But as sure as “Poppi” knows where the goal is, she is also moving forward in her private life with determination. Especially since the former EM unlucky Popp knows better than most of her colleagues how fragile a career as a professional soccer player can be.
Your first EM
In fact, this year’s European Championship is Popp’s first ever. An ankle injury abruptly slowed her participation in 2013, in 2017 it was a tear in the outer meniscus. And if the current EM had been held in 2021 as planned, Popp would have been doomed to watch for the third time in a row – she had to pause for almost a year due to a knee injury and only came back a few months ago.
In view of this period of suffering, it is all the more understandable that Popp does not want to rely solely on Queen Football. In the midst of her two missed EM participations, she built up a second mainstay, which presented her with completely different challenges than blood slides and offside traps: “State-certified zoo animal keeper. Bäääm, the training is in the bag!”, And a picture of one slightly different colleagues – a sloth. So it fits twice that Popp was ennobled after her two goals in the semifinals by teammate Lena Oberdorf (20) as “the beast in there”.
Your last EM?
If nothing unforeseen happens by Sunday, the European Championship final in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium in England will be Popp’s 120th game with the national team. The question that arises regardless of whether you win or lose: will Popp’s first European Championship also be her last? If she approaches her family planning as purposefully as her previous career(s), that seems quite possible.
“The rough plan is that I […] start a family and have a child. I don’t want to wait too long for that. But I will continue to play at VfL until 2022 [Wolfsburg]”, . The Women’s European Championship in 2025 in Switzerland should not be their top priority for the next few years. The triumph next Sunday would be all the more important for Popp and her team. And if all else fails: The next World Cup is only a year away due to the postponed EM…
Source: Stern
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