Almost a year ago to the day, on July 31, 2022, Alexandra Popp was to live at the age of 32 one of the peaks of her career in the colors of the German selection: a final of a European Championship against England, in the legendary Wembley stadium, packed with more than 87,000 spectators. But the 30-year-old striker is overtaken by “muscular problems” which deprive her of this final. She watched helplessly in the stands as her teammates were defeated at the end of extra time (2-1).
If she was part of the golden Olympic adventure in 2016 in the Maracana, another legendary football arena, Popp had a dotted history with the selection, injured during the two previous European Championships, in 2013 and 2017, thus missing the last continental crown of Germany in 2013. Triple winner of the Champions League in 2009 with Potsdam and in 2013 and 2014 with Wol sfburg, ‘Poppi’ truly grabbed the spotlight at Euro 2022 where she scored in every game for Germany until that injury before the final including a resounding brace against France in the semi-finals.
The native of Witten in the heart of the Ruhr between Bochum and Dortmund has become the face of Mannschaft since that silver summer with millions of viewers (peaking at nearly 18 million for the final) following the adventures of the Popp gang in England. We recognize her on the street, she participates in talk shows or entertainment programs, and when she attends a musical, the flashes of photographers turn first to her. It’s “a little curious,” she admits.
Champions League finalist with Wolfsburg in early June (she scored her team’s first goal, beaten 3-2 by FC Barcelona), it was she who stepped up to the plate on the television rights controversy for this World Cup-2023, which found takers just five weeks before the start of the tournament in the Antipodes. “I’ll put it nicely. At Mr. (Gianni) Infantino, we have the impression that it is only a question of money, and who is the most powerful in the world”, she had thus launched in early May against the president of Fifa who justified himself by not wanting to sell off the women’s competition.
And in the fight led by the American selection and its star Megan Rapinoe, for financial conditions equal to those of their male counterparts, Popp prefers to shift the debate from “Equal Pay” to “Equal Play”, and equal access to infrastructure, “so that we can be just as professional”. At 32, Popp wants to add a new line to his list, for what could be one of his last international tournaments. The last if there is the world title at the end?
“I don’t rule it out. It could be yes”, she replied in an interview granted in early May to the German sports press agency SID, a subsidiary of AFP. “But maybe I would also have so much fun that I would like to continue. The question is open.” The Paris Olympics in 2024 seem close, but it will first be necessary to qualify there via the League of Nations (in the fall of 2023, then in February 2024), with only two places in the end.
