Helmarit will face Germany in their last match of the European Football Championship on Saturday at 22:00. The broadcast on TV1 starts at 21:00 and on Puhee at 21:30.
Alexandra Popp got to taste success already at the age of 18. It didn’t take long to play a football career at the top level before the trophies started coming at a steady pace.
After that, the pace only accelerated. Individual top moments turned into trophies, the team grew from a top club to a European powerhouse. The attacker, who sometimes also played as a defender, was at the heart of everything and got to experience success that few people get used to.
Twelve years later, it’s no longer necessary to settle for championship points on the back side. Popp is a five-time German champion. Three-time Champions League winner. He has celebrated eight times in the German Cup.
However, two big ones are still missing. He is now 31 years old, but when it comes to the most prestigious tournaments of the national teams, the sand always flows a little faster in the hourglass.
That’s why the sensitization shone on Poppi’s face on Friday last week.
The goal into Denmark’s net in the first match of the European Championships was insignificant in terms of the result, but for Poppi it was everything. It was also recognized by teammates, who rushed to congratulate the player who had thrown himself on the grass.
The national team captain’s story is one of the all-time German football careers, but the goal is now clear. On top of the Olympic gold and the under-20 world championship, the European championship should be achieved this summer and the world championship next year.
– If nothing happens, these will be my first European Championships. That’s why I’m really excited myself. Until now, I’ve always been injured before the Games, and I haven’t been able to participate, Popp said On the website of the German Football Association at the beginning of the year.
“Unless something happens” encapsulates the unlucky top player’s justified uncertainty. Bad luck is perhaps the biggest reason why the most prestigious captains in national team football are missing from Poppi’s resume.
For Germany as a country, the EC tournament has traditionally been favorable. It won the championship six times in a row between 1995 and 2013. Recently, Popp was already a regular part of the group, but the races were bitterly missed. A month before the start of the tournament, it had to be stated that Popp would not have time to recover from his ankle injury in time.
The next opportunity came in the summer of 2017. Popp was seen at the games, but only in civilian clothes. He was injured in training. Racing dreams crashed – again, and again at the last minute.
Suddenly, patience has been tested for nine years. During those times, Popp has been waiting for his turn, his luck and his opportunity like the rising moon.
From a small club to the best promises
It’s no surprise that the one and a half year value competition window is becoming something of an obsession for Poppi. It has made him push forward against the headwind and recover in time.
Popp, who started playing football in a small club in FC Silschede, played in mixed teams until he was 14 years old. After that, it was time to move to bigger circles from the club that still invites Poppi to be the face of the cover. As a teenager, there were suitors from Lyon in France, among others, but Popp stubbornly stayed in Germany.
Now the career is already closer to the end than the beginning, and Popp still hasn’t represented any teams other than German. In practice, he has dedicated his entire life to German football – as captain of the national team and as a star of the country’s premier league, which is struggling for its position alongside, for example, England’s wealthy investments.
“The European Championship is what you still have to fight for. If in the end I lose this battle, so be it.” Alexandra Popp
The road to the top took shape early on, and the expectations have also been fulfilled. The top prospect, who signed a contract with the Bundesliga club Duisburg, got, among other things, a special permit as the only girl at Berger Feld’s prestigious “soccer school”, where many soccer stars who have shone on the world’s fields have grown up.
The partial boarding school works in cooperation with the giant club Schalke 04. The 60,000-seat stadium and first-class training center can even be seen from the window. The best possible framework for those developmentally crucial ages, when many talented young people fall off the wagon.
– I played with the boys for ten years and it left its mark. When I switched to the women’s team, it was easier to adapt to the speed of the game. I saw how Mesut Ozil, Manuel Neuer and Benedikt Höwedes developed in the same place and I heard a lot about what they did from the coaches, Popp described on the UEFA website.
As a Duisburg player, Popp won his first major league championship in 2009, when he also won his first German Cup. A couple of years later, the journey continued to Wolfsburg, which the striker still represents.
The colors green quickly rose to represent a dynasty as Wolfsburg dominated German women’s football. Within seven seasons, the team celebrated the championship five times and won the Champions League twice in a row.
In his career of more than a hundred international A matches, Popp has had time to taste a little success. So far, the brightest crown is the Olympic gold won in Rio six years ago. Popp scored one goal in the tournament.
Before jumping into the starting line-up of the women’s national team, she had time to make an impression at the under-20 World Cup in 2010. Germany played on their home field and Poppi’s name was heard the loudest. The net swung in every match, no less than ten times in total.
The goalscoring queen of the Games got wider international attention after this at the latest as she pushed herself to the next level.
It was then that he was publicly placed in the shoes of a new generation national team star, even By Birgit Prinz – to succeed Germany’s all-time number one player. However, the transition was already in full swing, because earlier that year Popp had made his debut in the A national team, and the next Prinz hit the nail on the head at the end of his 17-year national team career.
In the Algarve Cup match played in Portugal against Finland, Germany rolled to a 7-0 victory and Popp scored the first two goals of his national team career. The continuation has been followed by serial fire – at least until the last few years. The national match calendar, which has been withered by the corona years, combined with injury concerns, have kept Poppi away from his thoughts.
In the second match of the Games, Popp scored his second goal. This time it was Spain.
A familiar routine: ball into the net, hand to ear, finger towards the sky.
The ventilation that is becoming a trademark is a reference to the movie ET – although Popp does not call home, he is usually called from home every time after a goal. At the same time, it’s a tribute to two late grandfathers, who Popp believes watch his games.
High level of requirements
Just like nine years ago, this time too we had to experience extra palpitations. Then the bitter disappointment was felt at the start of the training camp. Now the time came well before the Games.
It was another injury, but clearly more serious than before. A knee injury in April 2021 would have ruined the race dreams without the delay caused by the pandemic, which gave the captain another chance.
The knee had to be operated, but that didn’t stop Poppi from being a leading player with his team. With his right knee braced and on crutches, he continued to mentor younger players, even though a return to the playing fields was months away.
To top it all off, the joy turned to grunts in a flash when the return finally happened.
The injury, which had already been dealt with once, worsened again in a training match. By then, there was already a nine-month rehabilitation process.
We had to start again almost from the beginning.
– I couldn’t take it anymore. I had been patient and coped well, but with the second surgery I was finished, Popp told the national team press conference in the spring.
Just this year, however, I had to endure.
– The European Championship is what we still have to fight for. If I end up losing this fight, so be it. At least I’ve tried. Surrender is not for me, Popp said to NDR in the middle of his latter recovery period.
Nowadays, Poppi’s contribution to Wolfsburg and Germany is more significant than goals. Having attended a tough football school, he demands a lot from himself and others, and is not afraid to remind us of his high bar.
– It is important that everything is not just smiling, but that we have someone who is not afraid to tell his teammates clearly when something is not enough. That’s one of the reasons why I’m really happy to have him back – not just for me, but for the whole team, teammate Kathrin Hendrichs described the national team at the press conference.
The captain is strict, firm, demanding. The kind of leader Germany needs to return to being queen of the hill.
The goals are visible, as the German Football Association has promised, among other things, a record-breaking championship bonus. The fees for 2017 have been almost doubled and the European Championship would bring an extra 60,000 euros to each player.
However, there is much more to the game with Pop. The cash bonus is an afterthought when it comes to one of the few trophies that hasn’t gone upside down.
This summer there is a better chance for that than what Popp will probably ever get again.
– During rehabilitation, my main goals were always the European Championship. Every time there was a setback, I thought about the races so I could pull myself together and get back to work.
Who will score the opening goal of the match and at what minute? Bet on the opening goalscorer of every European Championship match at Futistietäjä. The prize for the closest correct guess is a technical ball.
Read also:
No less than three credit players at Helmari have corona infection – team doctor Pippa Laukka unsure about Tuija Hyyrynen’s playing condition
Comment: Just being happy about Helmareite’s place in the European Championships is no longer enough – the Swedish Football Association can show in the next few years whether it stands behind its words
From a small village, Finnish champions become like mushrooms in the rain – Emmi Alanen of Helmareiden is an exception that made Petra Ollink cry
“I guess there was a career in it”, the father of Finland’s number one star remembers his daughter’s dark times at the age of 17 – Kemi will forever be on Natalia Kuika’s skin
Sanni Franssi changed her dress to sweatpants when the others went out to party – the Helmareite striker already adopted a persistent habit of going to training as a child