Striker Lea Schüller scores goals for the DFB women as regularly as no German international for a long time. Nevertheless, she has always been somehow in the shadow of Alexandra Popp at the big tournaments. But at the European Championship in Switzerland, she has now arrived in the spotlight.
And also promptly delivered again in the first European Championship game (2-0). In the 66th minute of play, she stole away in the back of the defenders Sylwia Matysik and Emilia Szymczak and nodded Jule Brand’s flank for the preliminary decision.
It was their 53rd goal in the 76th assignment for the A-national team. There is hardly any more spotlight. But because the public mostly looked at Popp, after the long -time captain’s resignation, who often competed with Schüller for the place in the storm center, is now a little different.
Schüller differently than Popp
The 27-year-old Schüller finds it “Generally a shame for the team that ‘Poppi’ is no longer there. She just broadcast something”she had explained before the European Championship start. But she does not intend to push into this gap: “We were very different. I will never replace an Alexandra Popp. I am not a captain’s type, I’m just not like ‘Poppi'”said Schüller in an interview with the sports show.
I will never replace an Alexandra Popp. I’m just not like ‘Poppi’.
A loudspeaker will no longer be Schüller – that’s certain. Public and media work in particular is rather a nuisance. Giulia Gwinn had taken over the role of captain (after Gwinn’s injury Janina Minge) and filled her role very much to the team. According to his own statement, Schüller wants to continue doing her own thing – and precedes performance on the pitch.
Schüller’s role models? “Women’s football not visible to me”
Schüller once took her first steps in football with the boys. “I had no women’s club nearby when I was young. Women’s football was not transmitted as it is now – and was simply not visible to me”the striker recalls. It was therefore also difficult with role models.
So Schüller had never heard of a Heidi Mohr until she was asked about the most effective DFB striker of all time. The three-time European champion and vice world champion from 1995 scored 83 goals in 104 international matches. This corresponds to an average of 0.8 goals per game. This is followed by Schüller (0.7) in the eternal leaderboard. A meeting can no longer happen, Mohr died of cancer in 2019 at the age of just 51.
Talks with DFB-Sturm icon Birgit Prinz
But Schüller also went her way without a model. At the SGS Essen, her career picked up. She debut in the Bundesliga at the age of 16. By 2020 she played for the last league’s last pure pure women’s football club before moving to Bayern. Then she had long since become a national player and had met another icon of women’s football in Germany with Birgit Prinz.
When the record national player worked as a mental trainer for the women’s team of the DFB, Schüller always looked for the conversation to with her “About striker matters” to speak, as she said.
Lea Schüller as a 16-year-old at her Bundesliga debut for the SGS Essen.
Sw they player Bühl praises Schüller in the highest tones
How Prince today prefers to keep himself out of public – and is more of a taciturn: does she have a favorite gate? “No, I am generally not anyone who makes the ‘banger’.” She is not a player for the particularly beautiful goals. Does she remember a particularly important goal? “I don’t think of any spontaneously.” And what about your recipe for success for many goals? “I don’t reveal that. Anyone could do that.”
Lea does what a striker is supposed to do: she stands right and does it.
Klara Bühl has known Schüller for years. In the club as in the national team, the left wing and Schüller are a well -rehearsed and also successful duo. “I actually always play with her. I know her extremely well. And I think you also notice how we combine how I always find her in the box”Bühl.
Schüller then reliably does exactly what the main task of a center forwarder is: “She is right and makes things in. We need a classic striker at the front that simply makes the goals and helps the team.”
Schüller: “Everyone looks forward”
Schüller is aware that she has a special position on the pitch as a center forwarder: “Everyone is looking forward. And there are only me. That’s why it is important that you also radiate something.”
Your role in the team has changed over the years. “I am now part of team old and the experienced players”said Schüller. But she grown into the role over time. She doesn’t have to do anything special for the final round.
She takes over “Simply different responsibility in the team”. Not least through goals. And at least on this point Popp and Schüller are quite similar.