Berlin “Nobody was counting on us,” said Alexandra “Poppi” Popp triumphantly after beating France in the semifinals. It is the work of Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, MVT for short, that the German soccer players still made it to Wembley, where they will play in the final against England on Sunday.
The 54-year-old not only massively rejuvenated the team she took over in poor condition in 2018. It has taken them so far technically and athletically that they have not only been able to beat the tiki-taka artists from Spain, but now even the extremely accomplished French women. One reason: the enormously high conversion rate.
It was Jürgen Klopp who publicly paid tribute to MVT before the semi-finals: “Compliments for putting the team in such a state,” he said in a video message.
For “the Martina”, as her girls call her, Klopp has long been a role model. “I was actually allowed to look over his shoulder in 2011. He always gave his players a different motto before the game,” she told “Sport Bild” in 2018: “I thought it was cool. I took over that.”
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It is “extremely exciting” how the Liverpool team manager can “inculcate willpower in his players and everyone is ready to go any way”. She wants to do the same with women. plan accomplished.
A temperament like Jürgen Klopp
Not only is both extremely active, dynamic football similar, but also their temperament: Like Klopp, MVT is enormously involved on the sidelines. She used to kick the drinking bottle away, which the assistant coach then got, she said. In the meantime she is calmer on the outside, but on the inside she is “just as emotional”.
“Somebody has to beat us first.” Martina Voss-Tecklenburg after the opening win against Denmark
The spirit that the down-to-earth, uncomplicated and authentic Duisburg native exudes was also decisive: positive, approachable, modest – but with an absolute will to win. “Somebody has to beat us first,” she shouted in a circle after the victory over Denmark. The girls believed her.
Despite many new appointments, there was no trouble in the team. Dramas like the French – howling players, personal quarrels between coach and top management – do not exist in the German team. And while the players from Paris and Lyon are fighting each other in “Les Bleus”, you don’t hear anything about strife between the women from Munich and Wolfsburg in the team.
“Our secret is that we trust each other and treat each other well,” as MVT puts it.
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In 2022, Voss-Tecklenburg embodies the turning point in women’s football. The European Championship is a symbol of this: Suddenly there is a great deal of interest, the ratings even beat the “crime scene”.
The German soccer players have reached the final of the European Championship in England. The team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg won the semi-final against France 2-1 (1-1) on Wednesday and will now meet hosts England on Sunday. Forward Alexandra Popp (number 11) scored both goals for Germany.
(Photo: IMAGO/PA Images)
And there is a good chance of permanently higher recognition. The Chancellor himself has criticized the meager salaries of the players. Oliver Bierhoff, Managing Director of the national team, was willing to talk – and is waiting for the Chancellor to visit. It is not known how much the social worker Voss-Tecklenburg earns as a national coach. Probably because it is only a fraction of the approximately six million euros that Hansi Flick collects.
So now Wembley. MVT herself knows big victories all too well: she won the women’s DFB Cup at KBC Duisburg at the age of 15, the German championship a total of six times and in 2000 was the first to be named player of the year for the second time.
MVT has won numerous major victories
The midfielder made 125 appearances for the national team, which the DFB – which banned women’s football until 1970 – only installed in 1982. She won the four European Championships in the national jersey in 1989, 1991, 1995 and 1997 – and in 1995 the vice world championship.
However, her career ended abruptly because of a dispute with her then partner and teammate Inka Grings before the 2000 Olympics. Since then, her playing time of a good 15 years has only been surpassed by Birgit Prinz.
Voss-Tecklenburg, who grew up in a working-class family with four siblings, climbed over the fence of a soccer field near her parents’ house at the age of five to play soccer with the neighbors’ children. “Most of all, my mother wasn’t allowed to hear about it. She always said: ‘It’s not for you, you’re too delicate and too small,'” she told the online magazine “NiederRhein Edition”.
But she couldn’t be stopped. And that at a time when women’s football was still largely ignored and ridiculed. A time when top female players had to be asked by TV reporters whether headers didn’t destroy hair and football harmed femininity.
Hardened against chauvinistic attacks
Such chauvinism has not yet been eradicated, as the many attacks on social media show. But the players and their coach can let that roll off today – also thanks to their success.
Her husband, the building contractor Hermann Tecklenburg, also supports the national coach. The footballer met him when he was a board member at Fortuna Düsseldorf. Today, MVT is itself a member of the Fortuna Supervisory Board.
The career of the national coach could still go a long way. Although her contract expires next year, as a precaution she announced before the semi-finals that she would like to continue until 2027.
The chances are good – even if Germany should lose at Wembley. The DFB has already signaled that it is reluctant to go to the 2023 World Cup with a coach that has an expiry date.
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