Facts: Alexandra Popp
Born: April 6, 1991 (age 31).
Nationality: German.
Position: striker.
Caps/goals: 119/59.
Clubs: Duisburg (2008–2012), Wolfsburg (2012–).
Current: Leads the EC’s scoring league on six goals together with England’s Beth Mead. Is the team captain in Germany, which plays the European Championship final against England on Sunday.
Damage, damage, damage. The road to Sunday’s European Championship final against England has been long for Alexandra Popp, even though she has the most international matches in the German squad (119).
She could have helped win the 2013 European Championship with Germany. But just before the championship in Sweden, the news came that an injury put an end to it, and Popp never got to be part of lifting the EC crown at the Friends arena.
Four years later, it was time again. Another injury – another missed European Championship.
In fact, she could have even missed her third straight EC.
Severe knee injury
At the beginning of 2021, Popp suffered a severe knee injury and if covid-19 had not postponed the championship for a year, she would have had to stand on the sidelines once more.
Popp was only back in action in March this year and was slowly but surely working his way back into shape. However, bad luck struck again when she fell ill with covid-19 three weeks before this year’s championship.
Alexandra Popp celebrates the goal in the 4–0 victory against Denmark.
Popp recovered, but when it was time for the EC premiere, she had to start on the bench. But the 31-year-old was substituted and scored in the 4-0 victory – and the emotions were unmistakable.
Popp dropped to her knees, put her forehead on the grass as her teammates ran forward to celebrate with her.
Since then, she has started all the matches and the goal celebration has continued.
— She is absolutely incredible. No one expected her to be so strong in this tournament. She was injured most of the season, came back and had another minor injury. Then we had the camp before the EC and she got covid. No one expected her to be at this level and I am so happy for her, says Lena Oberdorf, teammate of Popp in Wolfsburg and the national team.
When Popp scored 1–0 against Austria, she became the only one to have scored in four straight EC matches. And in the 2–1 victory against France, she made sure to send Germany to the European Championship final with her two goals.
— It means a lot to me. You saw it when I scored my first goal but also in other matches. “I’m more emotional than I’ve been before because I know how I got here,” Popp said, according to Goal, after the semi-final win over France.
“A fighter”
Lena Oberdorf says that her eleven-year-older teammate is a great source of inspiration for the German team.
— She is such a fighter on and off the pitch. I am so proud of her. She holds the ball, is calm and when I get too emotional she says: “Obi, relax”. She is important both to me and the whole team, says Oberdorf.
A long journey now ends in the final, and the dream is of course a European Championship gold. What stands in the way is host nation England at a packed Wembley on Sunday.
“It’s an incredible story and I hope it will have a very good ending,” says Popp.