Birgit Prinz was the monster attacker who killed Sweden’s championship dreams.
Today, she lives a life in the shadows – but is still very much involved when the European Championships are decided.
– I will not be at the forefront, she says.
As a Swede, it is hard to forget the World Cup final in 2003. And there were not directly a few who had sat down. 3,790,000 Swedes had sat in front of the television sets to watch stars such as Victoria Svensson and Hanna Ljungberg play home the World Cup gold for Sweden. But there was no easy resistance on the other side.
Completely dominated
Germany was the favorite, and in advance most of the talk was about Birgit Prinz. The shooting queen, the giant, the world’s best player. Sweden managed to keep Prinz speechless, but still lost. And it was almost an achievement in itself, it was not often that Prinz left a match goalless. She won the shooting league that time with her seven goals, and it was not the first time she had done something similar.
She made her national team debut already as a 16-year-old, and it was not long before she was the clear star. She scored an incredible 128 goals in 214 international matches, and managed to win the World Cup twice and the European Championship five times. She was also named the world’s best player three times – and was also completely dominant in her club teams.
Birgit Prinz does that today
Prinz played mainly in Frankfurt, where she averaged well over one goal per game. When she ended her career in 2011, she did so with a record of 282 goals in 282 games. Already in 2005, the German began studies to become a psychologist, and although she is not seen in the media too often nowadays, she has a given place in the German national team.
Prinz has written several dissertations in sports psychology, and in recent years she works as a mental counselor and psychologist for the German national team. So she is still with the squad all the time – and is said to have a key role if it is to be a German success in this year’s European Championships. But despite her enormous legendary status, she chooses to stand in the shadows.
– It’s a background job, for me it’s all about the players. As a sports psychologist, I’m just a piece of the puzzle, but not in the front, she said before the championship.
– It’s not about me anymore. It is also in line with my job not to do interviews every day.
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