Successful career Position: GoalkeeperClubs: 1996-2007 FC SG Gartow, 2007-2008 Hamburger SV, 2008-2011 Magdeburger FFC, 2011-2013 SC 07 Bad Neuenahr, since 2013 VfL Wolfsburg Successes: U-20 World Champion 2010, European Champion 2013, Champions League winner 2014, German league champion 2013/14, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, German national cup winner 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, Olympic gold medalist 2016Awards: World Goalkeeper of the Year 2014
Why did you decide to continue? I said from the beginning: For me this is a conscious decision. Besides, I have an ongoing contract, which I would like to honour. Before that, I discussed it at length with my family. Everyone said: ‘We’re behind you, we’ll make it work.’ My mother continued to work in her job at the time, so why shouldn’t that be possible in football? The difficulty is probably: You have completely different working hours than many other mothers. Yes, it is not so clearly defined. Sometimes appointments are postponed at short notice, sometimes days off are cancelled, sometimes we have a 7-day week. There is not always a nursery that is open. Instead, I depend on a lot of support from my family. It’s not always easy to organize, but so far it’s working out very well. And I am very proud about that. How does the club support you? Those responsible at VfL and I had agreed that I could work part-time for the first two months after maternity leave. That was then not possible. However, the club has made it possible for me to gradually return to training. On the one hand I was able to get used to team training again, on the other hand I didn’t demand too much of myself.
Do you see the children in between the training sessions? No, I can’t do that because I live more than an hour’s drive away. That’s the compromise: My family is always close by at home and can take care of things. But I can also train individually at home. For this purpose I have set up a weight room, which I now use.