Bettitude’s Football Idols: Birgit Prinz, Youngest Player To Appear In A World Cup Final
A brief look at the career of arguably Germany’s greatest female footballer of all time…
Written by Oluwaseun Oyediji
The best to come out from the German Women’s football team, Birgit Prinz is a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup Champions and won the FIFA World Player of the Year award three times.
Club Career
After her youth career with SV Dörnigheim FC and FC Hochstadt from 1986 to 1992, Prinz joined FSV Frankfurt where she started her senior career, playing 57 games and scoring 45 goals before joining 1. FFC Frankfurt.
Before retirement, Birgit Prinz scored a total number of 282 goals in 282 games for FSV Frankfurt, 1. FFC Frankfurt and Carolina Courage combined.
She won two German Bundesliga titles (1994/1995 and 1997/1998) as well German Cups (1994/1995 and 1995/1996) with FSV Frankfurt. With FFC Frankfurt, Prinz won the UEFA Women’s Cup three times (2001/2022, 2005/2006, and 2007/2007) clinching seven German Bundesliga titles and eight German Cups.
International Career
Birgit Prinz made her international debut for the German senior women’s national team at the age of 16 in July 1994 scoring against Canada. In 1995, she made the German squad for the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup at her teenage age making her the youngest player ever to appear in a World Cup Final.
Prinz scored 128 goals in 214 games for Germany and had 24 goals from 43 games across five FIFA Women’s World Cup and four Olympics.
With the German national team, Birgit Prinz won two FIFA Women’s World Cups (USA 2003 and China 2007).
Unfortunately, the team could not win an Olympic gold medal and had to settle for bronze medals on three occasions (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008).
In Europe, Birgit Prinz and her German side won five UEFA European Women’s Championship titles (Germany/England/Norway/Sweden 1995, Norway/Sweden 1997, Germany 2001, England 2005, and Finland 2009).
Prinz holds several national and international records. With 14 goals, she is the second all-time leading goal scorer at FIFA Women’s World Cups. From 2008 until 2012, Prinz and Brazil’s Cristiane both held the tournament record of 10 goals at the Summer Olympics, although Cristiane has now surpassed Prinz. For the German national team, Prinz appeared 214 times and scored 128 goals, and is the team’s most capped player and top goal scorer.
Some of her individual awards Include: eight-time German Player of the Year, UEFA Women’s Championship Golden Player (1995), Golden ball winner at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Bundesliga top scorer on four occasions amongst others.
Retirement
On 12 August 2011, Birgit Prinz announced the end of her active career. She currently works as a sport psychologist for the men’s and women’s teams of 1. Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
When the German senior women’s football team is being mentioned, a prominent name that comes to mind is Birgit Prinz for her contribution to the round leather game in her country.
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