Shock about Giulia Gwinn’s injury: the consequences and many questions

There was a significant scene last week that revealed a lot about Giulia Gwinn. The team picture in front of the beautiful backdrop in the Sportzentrum Buchlern of Zurich was not yet made, when the captain of the German footballers took Sara Däbritz’s hair. Can’t be that the team’s hairstyle is not properly seated. Attention must be taken into account – so the leader herself laid a hand again.

She also took care of the details so that everything Picobello looks at the Germans at this European Championship, where many streets, squares, hotels or bathing establishments look like in Zurich. That was her claim with which the 26-year-old went to this European Championship. And two days before the opening game against Poland (2-0), she should say how confident she is that the ninth European Championship title for the DFB women could finally be something.

Now the mission has ended with her before this final round started properly. The cruciate ligament is not broken, as was initially suspected, but an inner ligament injury means the tournament out of the tournament. When attempting Ewa Pajor, her left knee got stuck in the lawn. More than eight million television viewers in the ARD trembled: number seven returned briefly before the break in the Kybunpark of St. Gallen, but finally sagged together on the field.

“I saw how she prevented a safe goal,” said national coach Christian Wück later, who would otherwise not want to speculate on the diagnosis on Friday evening. On Saturday afternoon, sports director Nia Künzer said: “Giulia is depressed. She was very happy, had prepared well – so she is now disappointed.” Even if the MRI did not confirm the worst suspicion, one of the world’s best right -backs will be missing “several weeks”. The Germans are certainly no longer a top favorite without the manager. Künzer wanted to have emphasized: “There is a good team spirit in this team. Sportily, the team for Giulia showed a reaction.”

Already in the night of Saturday, the 45-year-old had taken care of the Gwinn family almost honestly, all of whom had taken the short tour around Lake Constance. Parents, siblings, friend. And later they looked into a black hole in their white gwinn jerseys with number seven, almost paralyzed in front of the team bus. It will also take for the flagship player from FC Bayern to deal with the next setback of her career.

Her star opened in France at the 2019 World Cup when she shot the winning goal cheekily in the first game against China (1-0). At that time there was a lot of talk of the “beautiful Giulia”, because Alexandra Popp then shaped the saying that the newcomer Gwinn was “the prettiest”. The label stuck to her first. Then the first setback: In an EM qualification game against Ireland in autumn 2020, the cruciate ligament tore in the right knee.

During training with the German national team, the cruciate ligament in the left knee broke in autumn 2022. The then national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg immediately broke off the unit because many players cried. She described the long time of suffering in her book “Write Your Own Story – my way from the football field to the top of the world”.

In this context, she told her how the figurehead of FC Bayern reported to her. “I was in the hospital after my new cruciate ligament rupture, just woke up from the operation. Then came a call – anonymous. It was Uli Hoeneß, who wanted to tell me that the whole FC Bayern was behind me and I could always contact him. He shouldn’t have done it. The more it meant to me.”

However, Bayern are “not amused” that her star shopping Lena Oberdorf has not played a game to this day because she torn the cruciate ligament in an EM qualification game a year ago. Behind the hand, other clubs also complain that so many serious knee injuries for DFB measures happen. Gwinn is the fifth case within two years. Only Carolin Simon shortly before the 2023 World Cup, then Oberdorf in front of the Olympic Games, in February this year the young goalkeeper Sophia Winkler and the U23 national player Marie Müller. Now Gwinn, who had invited a lot of load on her shoulders for the past few weeks and days.

Markus Högner, as a trainer at the SGS Essen the pioneer of many careers and a short time also co-trainers of the national team, has long suspected a connection between mental stress and the injuries that occur. His goalkeeper Winkler seriously injured her knee on the DFB campus in February when she had just announced her move to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Gwinn will also think about why dreams like now burst in Switzerland. In the first chapter, your book is directed “Small and big dreamers in this world.” It is about “how I wrote down our big dream with my grandmother and my brother. This is one of my favorite spots because a basic tone is set: at six years I wrote down that I wanted to be a footballer. 15 years later I fell into my hands again – and there was: what you dream as a small child can become reality.” But there are still hard landings.

The teammates have to get the pictures from St. Gallen quickly from their heads. “It was a brutal shock, we all know their history. We now have to stand together as a team,” said defense chief Janina Minge, who is now probably fun for the rest of the tournament. Club colleague Linda Dallmann promised that the team would be there for Gwinn “because it is also there for each of us whenever she can”.

This time the captain talked to the district selection to avoid a failure like with a base camp at the 2023 World Cup in the Australian wasteland in Wyong. In the premium negotiations, she didn’t have to do much because the DFB offered the title from 120,000 euros for the title. She touched how the players in Zurich were received by the DFB team management. With pictures and letters: “You like to see and read something like this.”

Gwinn wanted to lead the team differently than its predecessor Popp at this European Championship. A little gentle, because it does not offer that many corners and edges. She wanted problems about the interpersonal rules: “If something is not going, that you have the courage to speak things; that you don’t get your head torn down: if you talk about it, you can get out of the world a lot.” Your credo: communication at eye level.

She is the last one would not fulfill the wishes of the fans. “You take an image or give an autograph – this is actually always a nice exchange. I still see it as great appreciation. I don’t think it is as blatant as with the men who can no longer move outside.” She is convinced that the balancing act can succeed in women. Recently she said: “I am now part of the big football world. Nevertheless, I want to get this lightness, this wild. A good mix of discipline, focus – and also carefree.”

She had also threaded that pop star Wolfgang Petry opened in the training camp. A tournament anthem came out to the hit “fall in love, lost, forget, forgive, forgive”. Gwinn had reported and laughed on Wednesday before her birthday. The day after, the teammates formed a circle during training to clap for them. On Friday, national coach Wück called his team a circle after the compulsory victory just a few seconds. Then everyone should quickly into the cabin to comfort Giulia Gwinn. After all, it didn’t happen that bad. But the best -known footballer for Germany is the drama of Lake Constance.