Germany 8

 

Brigit Prinz (1. FFC Frankfurt)
vs. Canada (2:1) | World Cup | 2011 in Germany

Finally, I got a shirt of the best German national team - the women's national team. And this one is quite special to me, too. Mostly, because it is from the first women's football tournament I thoroughly followed - the 2011 World Cup in Germany. Before that tournament, I did take notice of the women's national teams success, did very much appreciate Birgit Prinz, but did not really follow the team or women's football in general. That changed in 2011, when half the country was going crazy about the World Cup hosted in Germany. I started watching the opening match, a narrow win over Canada, and ended up seeing almost all matches of the tournament, including those without Germany. I ended up being a massive Japan fan and was celebrating their victory in the end.

Now, that was a tragic result for Germany in the end. We started into the tournament as the reigning World and European Champion - and were the clear favourite, especially as the host of it. But the tournament never really kicked off for Germany. The narrow win over Canada was followed by narrow wins over Nigeria and France, before we lost to Japan in the first knockout stage match. Somehow, the team seemed nervous, almost overwhelmed by the buzz about the tournament. In hindsight, that is less surprising, given that most players were semi-pro at best - but back then it was really hard to watch at times.

Now, almost 15 years later, women's football has become a very important part of my life, somehow. I am co-hosting a women's football podcast (in German) and run the women's football blog www.forgotten-heroines.com, which tries to tell the history of women's football once country at a time. That said, I am over the moon with this shirt, which I actually nicked from my wife, who got it back in 2011.