Status: 19.08.2025 4:09 p.m.
VfL Wolfsburg’s footballers are preparing for the new season in Thuringia. 13 new additions are and must be integrated. The team’s face remains the long -time captain Alexandra Popp.
At the end of the two -hour training session in the morning, Alexandra Popp wears a network with ten balls and a tactic table in the shed – as always, the 34 -year -old is progressing and does not use privileges that she would have worked for a long time at VfL due to her experience and standings.
“I think something of a certain hierarchy. But to say: You have to carry everything behind – that would not be me. And of course I also send the sign: everyone tackles here,” she says to the NDR.
Popp: “New players all very open”
Together with Svenja Huth and Joelle Wedemeyer, Popp is one of the few players who already played for VfL in the first Wolfsburg term of the returned coach Stephan Lerch (2017 to 2021). This year, especially this year, the upheaval for the runner -up was huge: 15 players left the club, 13 new Kamen. It now has to be integrated.
“I have learned in the past: whether you played good or bad football, it was crucial whether you are a team or not.”
Alexandra Popp
“We have never had so many newcomers here in my time. What things simplify: the new players are all very open, you don’t have to invest much to get them on board,” reports the striker, who has been running for VfL since 2012.
Players from nine nations
Both head coach Lerch and assistant Carin Bakhuis in Weimarer Land always explain the processes on the square in English – players from nine nations are in the squad, German lessons with a teacher have already started.
Popp: “In addition – and that now sounds banal – that we finally have a room in Wolfsburg where we can eat together at noon. This also creates more communication and connections.”
At the team spirit, VfL is said to have been a member of VfL from time to time. Nevertheless, the Lower Saxony secured second place in the table. The cup off in the quarterfinals at TSG Hoffenheim was the bitterest event of a not optimal playing time, including the farewell of coach Tommy Stroot in early April. “The last season was somehow very torn. There is now a fresh start with many new faces,” says Popp.
Vacation instead of European Championship
Popp starts her 18th Bundesliga season. Last year she resigned from the national team. While many of her teammates played at the euro in Switzerland, she relaxed, among other things, while hiking in Austria.
“I enjoyed the vacation incredibly. It was my first summer without football, that was also extremely good for my body. I was happy when the preparation started. Although I didn’t find the runs so cool,” laughs the striker, who suffered some serious injuries in her career. “Of course now and then something, but not to a large extent.”
Flirt with amateur football
Popp changed the jersey last weekend: she ran in Helmstedt in honor of her former teammates Martina Müller and Jana Burmeister, who had recently played at the local TSV Barmke.
“Just a village kick that you knew about nothing. I could also imagine kicking a little in the amateur area later. Where it is all about having fun where the third half is the strongest,” says Popp with a wink. However: “I don’t know whether the body will still participate.”
Future open after the season
Popp’s contract at VfL expires at the end of this season, and she has not yet made a decision about the future. “It will probably be similar to the national team. If I somehow have the feeling that it is just stress and simply no longer fun, then the time is there. But at the moment I actually enjoy it.”
After the interview, she climbs to a GolfCart made available from the hotel resort-in Blankenhain you could also swing the racket on an 18-hole place, but Alexandra Popp does not intend: “We have two training session today.
