Soccer Olympic champion Mandy Islacker has ended her professional career.
Her club 1. FC Köln announced this on Sunday after the 1-1 draw in the Bundesliga season finale against SGS Essen. With eight goals, the captain was the most successful goalscorer for the FC women in the past season, and the equalizer against Essen was also due to her.
“Anyone who knows me knows that saying goodbye is very difficult for me,” Islacker is quoted as saying in a statement: “But I have decided that my professional career away from football and my private life will now come first.”
Islacker became Olympic champion with the German national team in Rio in 2016 and won the Champions League with 1. FFC Frankfurt in 2015. In 2016 and 2017 she was top scorer twice in the Bundesliga for Eintracht Frankfurt’s predecessor.