Lena Oberdorf is one of the most successful footballers in the world. As a shooting star, she is often exposed to hate messages and death threats. She tells us in the BR24Sport podcast “Pizza & Fries” what that does to her and how she deals with it.
Lena Oberdorf is one of these child prodigies. Things went uphill quickly and quickly for the footballer. She made her Bundesliga debut at the age of 16, she was the youngest German World Cup debutant and has won various awards. Today she is the shooting star of German women’s football, she is known far beyond the community and her fan base – there are still not many athletes in women’s football who can achieve this to this extent.
Oberdorf is just 23 years old. In the BR24Sport podcast “Pizza & Fries” she explains what such rapid development has done to her at such a young age: “In this hamster wheel, everything is moving too fast, it’s crazy, even for the head.” From one game to the next, national team, club, training, matches:
From the Champions League final to the European Championship into the season
Above all, Oberdorf would have liked more time to be able to process successes and defeats properly: “You lose a Champions League final, then the season comes straight away, then you fly high at the European Championships. Then you go straight back to the team and prepare for the season, this fast-paced and ever-further, ever-faster thing – that’s amazing.”
Hate after moving to FC Bayern
The time surrounding her move from VfL Wolfsburg to FC Bayern Munich was particularly emotional for her. Years ago, Oberdorf once said that she would never move to the Munich team. This sentence was her downfall when the change became official: “I wasn’t that experienced with the media and then you just say things like that out of emotion.”
Oberdorf received hate messages and death threats. She was the target of trolls online. “For me personally as an individual, it was just the worst thing that could have happened. I first deleted Instagram.”
Social media break after moving to FC Bayern
Oberdorf suspected early on that the move from VfL Wolfsburg to FC Bayern Munich would cause excitement. The social media break was therefore necessary:
The Bayern player had already spoken openly about hate comments in recent weeks and in the BR24Sport podcast “Pizza and Fries” she said: “Who takes the right to write that about others?”
“Had a half-panic attack before the cup final”
Before the cup final with Wolfsburg against Bayern (shortly before the change), this pressure was particularly strong: “I had a half-panic attack before the game because I thought, this can’t be right: we have to win this. I couldn’t cope at all , because my heart was really fast and I thought: Fuck then we’ll go out and then everything went according to plan.”
Sport and friends in difficult times
Sport and her friends helped her during this time. “Just go play tennis or volleyball with a few people. See something else where you can just forget about time for a moment.”
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Source: BR24Sport
January 7, 2025 – 6:30 p.m
