Germany’s best soccer player Dzsenifer Marozsan has recovered from a cruciate ligament rupture, but will only appear once again for the national team: on April 11 against Brazil. After that, the 30-year-old ended her DFB career.
The midfielder from Olympique Lyon, who has long since recovered from her cruciate ligament rupture, will voluntarily forgo the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20th to August 20th). “I will resign from the national team. I’ve been thinking about it for a few months, which has now matured into the decision.”says the 30-year-old, who inaugurated the national coach a month ago, but is only now informing the public.
Voss-Tecklenburg was speechless at first. And called back a week after the announcement of the resignation from the long-time playmaker of the DFB women. But Germany’s best soccer player could not be dissuaded from her plan in this conversation.
The game against Brazil on April 11 is said to be the farewell game
Marozsan only wants to wear the jersey of the German team one more time: in the endurance test in Nuremberg against Brazil on April 11 (6 p.m. / live on the first). In contrast to the first measure in February with a training camp in Marbella and the difficult start to the year against Sweden (0-0), Marozsan now accepts the invitation to the next course. But only to draw a line under a formative chapter in her career.
The reasons for their retirement after 111 international matches (33 goals) are complex. The missed EM in England was one of many signs. “I remember well how I didn’t even want to watch a game at the 2011 World Cup when I was also injured. Now I was the biggest fan of the girls on TV without it hurting not to be there.” Added to this would be the double burden, which from their point of view would not be optimal. “I’m doing well again at the club, but my knee isn’t the same anymore – I have to work a lot so that I can complete all the training sessions and games.“Internationals, preparation and the tournament could then be too much.
She won the European Championships and won the Olympics
For her farewell game against Brazil, a possible opponent for Germany in the round of 16, she, who usually wore the number ten in the DFB jersey, has a very personal wish: namely to run with her nephew, the son of her brother David, who is five years older , whom she saw almost every weekend during her long injury layoff.
In their title mission Down Under, the German soccer players, just like at the European Championships in England, now have to do without a creative force that can make the difference on good days. In her first major tournament, still under Silvia Neid, she won the 2013 European Championships in Sweden, where she scored the only goal in the semifinals against the hosts (1-0). This was followed by gold at the 2016 Olympic Games, where she almost single-handedly decided the final against Sweden (2-1). To date, these are the last two titles for the DFB women.
Every World Cup was under a bad star
Moreover, Marozsan has won the Champions League five times, four times with Olympique Lyon and in 2015 with the former 1. FFC Frankfurt, for whom she played between 2009 and 2016. Only world championships were under a very bad star for the noble technician.
Marozsan, who was already considered an exceptional talent at the time, missed the home tournament in Germany in 2011 with a torn inner ligament. In Canada 2015, she suffered a bad ankle injury during training on artificial turf, only intervened as a substitute, but then limped and converted a penalty against France in the quarter-finals. In France in 2019, she broke her big toe in the opening game against China. In the quarterfinals against Sweden, she ran on in the second half with a special shoe. In vain.
Your cruciate ligament tear was initially not recognized by DFB doctors
“Every World Cup has been unfortunate for me: I don’t want to say that I’m afraid of injuring myself again, but of course these experiences are part of my personal history and therefore present with me.” Allegedly, it didn’t matter that her knee injury, which she suffered in April 2022 in a World Cup qualifier in Serbia, was not recognized by DFB doctors, but only much later by specialists from Olympique Lyon. “Of course it was unfortunate, but my resignation has nothing to do with it.”
Other doctors would not have been able to see the cruciate ligament tear on the pictures either, “That’s why the diagnosis came very, very much later.” In any case, the daughter of the Hungarian national player Janos Marozsan, who used to play for 1. FC Saarbrücken, doesn’t say a bad word about her farewell. As for her teammates in the national team, whom she last saw when invited to the European Championship final in Wembley, she would “a huge fan” stay as she says.
She’s kind of tired of the fight for recognition
“If I look back ten years, women’s football has already developed enormously in all areas, but there is still room for improvement everywhere.” The problems are the same in France as in Germany. Things are very professional in Lyon, “but in some away games the conditions are really sub-par”.
Germany’s three-time player of the year is almost tired of the fight for recognition: “I just think it’s a shame that we have to put on a circus to be respected. At some point you get fed up! The Canadians put on purple jerseys to collect outstanding payments. It’s crazy what we have to do again and again to get recognition and visibility. It tires me out.”
Dzsenifer Marozsan has not yet decided where she will play from the summer. Her contract with the record winner of the Women’s Champions League is expiring, there have been talks about an extension, but she wants to listen to all offers together with her agent Dietmar Ness. Only one thing is certain: “I want to play for a few more years, that’s not a question for me at all.” At club level, 30 should not be the end of it.