Birgit Prinz

Birgit Prinz

Prinz with Germany in 2011.
Personal information
Date of birth	(1977-10-25) 25 October 1977
Place of birth	Frankfurt am Main, West Germany
Height
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1986–1988	SV Dörnigheim FC
1988–1992	FC Hochstadt
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1993–1998	FSV Frankfurt	57	(45)
1998–2002	1. FFC Frankfurt	76	(78)
2002–2003	Carolina Courage	35	(23)
2003–2011	1. FFC Frankfurt	114	(136)
Total		282	(282)
International career‡
1994–2011	Germany	214	(128)
Medal record Women's football Representing Germany Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Team Competition 2004 Athens Team Competition 2008 Beijing Team Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 12:09, 2 November 2013 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 30 June 2011 (UTC))

Birgit Prinz (born 25 October 1977) is a retired German female professional association football player. She played mostly for 1. FFC Frankfurt and on the German national team. Prinz remains one of the game's most prolific strikers and is the second FIFA Women's World Cup all-time leading scorer with 14 goals (second only to Marta from Brazil). She was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005. On 12 August 2011, she announced the end of her active career. She currently works as a sport psychologist for the male and female teams of 1. Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

Career

Club

Prinz began her career at SV Dörnigheim FC. She made her Bundesliga debut for FSV Frankfurt, where she played from 1993 to 1998. During that time Prinz won two Bundesliga titles and two German Cups. In 1997 and 1998 she was the Bundesliga top scorer. In 1998, she moved to local rivals 1. FFC Frankfurt, where she has had her biggest success at club level. In 13 seasons at the club, Prinz won six Bundesliga and eight German Cup titles. She also won the Bundesliga top-scorer award twice more in 2001 and 2007. Prinz won the UEFA Women's Cup three times with Frankfurt, in the 2001–02, 2005–06 and 2007–08 seasons. She also reached the final in 2004, but lost to the Swedish side Umeå IK.

For two seasons, Prinz joined Carolina Courage in the professional women's league WUSA in the United States. During her short stint in America she claimed the 2002 WUSA Championship. After the 2003 World Cup, Prinz declined an offer from AC Perugia to play in Italy's men's Serie A, fearing her transfer would be used as a publicity stunt and she would end up on the bench.

In her time at FFC Frankfurt, Prinz won many personal awards, including a record eight German Female Footballer of the Year awards from 2001 to 2008. She was named the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005. For four consecutive years from 2007 to 2010 she came second, behind Brazil's Marta.

International

At the age of 16, Prinz made her debut for Germany's national team in July 1994 against Canada. She came on after 72 minutes and scored the game-winner in the 89th minute. One year later, she won her first major title at the 1995 European Championship, scoring in the final. In the same year, she was names to Germany's squad for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, where they lost to Norway in the final match. She remains the youngest player ever to appear in a World Cup Final.

For the next decade, Prinz had one of the most successful international careers in women's football. She won four more UEFA European Championships in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009. At the Summer Olympics she won bronze three times with the German team, in 2000, 2004 and 2008. At the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, Prinz helped Germany win its first World Cup title in the women's game. She was honoured as the tournament's best player and top-scorer. Prinz became the women's national team captain at the end of 2003, and remained until her retirement. Four years later, at the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, she captained the team to Germany's second World Cup title; she was awarded the Silver Ball as the second-best player at the tournament.

Prinz holds several national and international records. With 14 goals, she is the second all-time leading goalscorer 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. She is the team's most capped player and top goalscorer, and is also the most capped non-American player in the sport.

Statistics at World Cup and Olympic Tournaments

Birgit Prinz competed in five FIFA Women's World Cup: Sweden 1995, USA 1999, USA 2003, China 2007; and Germany 2011; and four Olympics: Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008; altogether played in 43 matches and scored 24 goals at those nine global tournaments. With Germany, Prinz is a two-time world champion from USA 2003 and China 2007, and a runner-up from Sweden 1995, as well as a three-time bronze medalist from Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

	Key (expand for notes on “world cup and olympic goals”)
Location	Geographic location of the venue where the competition occurred
Lineup	Start – played entire match on minute (off player) – substituted on at the minute indicated, and player was substituted off at the same time off minute (on player) – substituted off at the minute indicated, and player was substituted on at the same time (c) – captain
Min	The minute in the match the goal was scored. For list that include caps, blank indicates played in the match but did not score a goal.
Assist/pass	The ball was passed by the player, which assisted in scoring the goal. This column depends on the availability and source of this information.
penalty or pk	Goal scored on penalty-kick which was awarded due to foul by opponent. (Goals scored in penalty-shoot-out, at the end of a tied match after extra-time, are not included.)
Score	The match score after the goal was scored.
Result	The final score. W – match was won L – match was lost to opponent D – match was drawn (W) – penalty-shoot-out was won after a drawn match (L) – penalty-shoot-out was lost after a drawn match
aet	The score at the end of extra-time; the match was tied at the end of 90' regulation
pso	Penalty-shoot-out score shown in parenthesis; the match was tied at the end of extra-time
	Orange background color – Olympic women's football tournament
	Blue background color – FIFA women's world cup final tournament

Goal	Match	Date	Location	Opponent	Lineup	Min	Score	Result	Competition
Sweden 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup Final
	1	1995-06-05	Karlstad	Japan	{{{4}}}. on 65' (off Tecklenburg)			1–0 W	Group stage
	2	1995-06-07	Helsingborg	Sweden	{{{4}}}. on 57' (off Brocker)			2–3 L	Group stage
1	3	1995-06-09	Karlstad	Brazil	Start	5	1–0	6–1 W	Group stage
	4	1995-06-13	Vasteras	England	{{{4}}}. off 67' (on Brocker)			3–0 W	Quarter-final
	5	1995-06-15	Helsingborg	China PR	{{{4}}}. off 83' (on Wunderlich)			1–0 W	Semifinal
	6	1995-06-18	Solna	Norway	{{{4}}}. off 42' (on Brocker)			0–2 L	Final
Atlanta 1996 Olympic Women's Football Tournament
	7	1996-07-21	Birmingham, AL	Japan	{{{4}}}. on 53' (off Brocker)			3–2 W	Group match
2	8	1996-07-23	Washington, D.C.	Norway	{{{4}}}. on 52' (off Brocker)	62	2–2	2–3 L	Group match
	9	1996-07-25	Birmingham, AL	Brazil	{{{4}}}. on 42' (off Brocker)			1–1 D	Group match
USA 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup
	10	1999-06-20	Los Angeles	Italy	Start			1–1 D	Group match
	11	1999-06-24	Portland, OR	Mexico	{{{4}}}. off 75' (on Mueller)			6–0 W	Group match
3	12	1999-06-27	Washington, D.C.	Brazil	Start	8	1–0	3–3 D	Group match
	13	1999-07-01	Washington, D.C.	United States	Start			2–3 L	Quarter-final
Sydney 2000 Olympic Women's Football Tournament
	14	2000-09-13	Canberra	Australia	Start			3–0 W	Group match
4	15	2000-09-16	Canberra	Brazil	Start	33	1–0	2–1 W	Group match
5						41	2–0
	16	2000-09-19	Melbourne	Sweden	Start			1–0 W	Group match
	17	2000-09-24	Sydney	Norway	Start			0–1 L	Semifinal
6	18	2000-09-28	Sydney	Brazil	Start	79	2–0	2–0 W	Bronze medal match
USA 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup
7	19	2003-09-20	Columbus, OH	Canada	Start	75	3–1	4–1 W	Group match
8	20	2003-09-24	Columbus, OH	Japan	Start	36	2–0	3–0 W	Group match
9						66	3–0
10	21	2003-09-27	Washington, D.C.	Argentina	Start	32	3–0	6–1 W	Group match
11	22	2003-10-02	Portland, OR	Russia	Start	80	5–1	7–1 W	Quarter-final
12						89	7–1
13	23	2003-10-05	Portland, OR	United States	Start	90+3	3–0	3–0 W	Semifinal
	24	2003-10-12	Carson, CA	Sweden	Start			2–1 aet W	Final
Athens 2004 Women's Olympic Football Tournament
14	25	2004-08-11	Patras	China PR	Start	13	1–0	8–0 W	Group match
15						21	2–0
16						73	4–0
17						88	7–0
18	26	2004-08-17	Piraeus	Mexico	Start; (c)	79	2–0	2–0 W	Group match
	27	2004-08-20	Patras	Nigeria	Start; (c)			2–1 W	Quarter-final
	28	2004-08-23	Heraklion	United States	Start; (c)			1–2 L	Semifinal
	29	2004-08-26	Piraeus	Sweden	Start; (c)			1–0 W	Bronze medal match
China 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
19	30	2007-09-10	Shanghai	Argentina	Start; (c)	29	4–0	11–0 W	Group match
20						45+1	5–0
21						59	8–0
	31	2007-09-14	Shanghai	England	Start; (c)			0–0 D	Group match
22	32	2007-09-17	Hangzhou	Japan	Start; (c)	21	1–0	2–0 W	Group match
	33	2007-09-22	Wuhan	Korea DPR	Start; (c)			3–0 W	Quarter-final
	34	2007-09-26	Tianjin	Norway	Start; (c)			3–0 W	Semifinal
23	35	2007-09-30	Shanghai	Brazil	Start; (c)	52	1–0	2–0 W	Final
Beijing 2008 Women's Olympic Football Tournament
	36	2008-08-06	Shenyang	Brazil	Start; (c)			0–0 D	Group match
	37	2008-08-09	Shenyang	Nigeria	Start; (c)			1–0 W	Group match
	38	2008-08-12	Tianjin	Korea DPR	Start; (c)			1–0 W	Group match
	39	2008-08-15	Shenyang	Sweden	Start; (c)			2–0 aet W	Quarter-final
24	40	2008-08-18	Shanghai	Brazil	Start; (c)	10	1–0	1–4 L	Semifinal
	41	2008-08-21	Beijing	Japan	Start; (c)			2–0 W	Bronze medal match
Germany 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
	42	2011-06-26	Berlin	Canada	{{{4}}}. off 56' (on Popp); (c)			2–1 W	Group match
	43	2011-06-30	Frankfurt	Nigeria	{{{4}}}. off 53' (on Grings); (c)			1–0 W	Group match

Private life

Prinz is a trained physical therapist. In 2010, she graduated with her Master's degree in psychology from the Goethe University Frankfurt. Since January 2012, she has worked as a sport psychologist in the youth academy, women's U-17 and women's Bundesliga teams at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

Honours

Club

FSV Frankfurt

• Bundesliga: Winner (2) 1994–95, 1997–98
• German Cup: Winner (2) 1994–95, 1995–96

1. FFC Frankfurt

• UEFA Women's Cup: Winner (3) 2001–02, 2005–06, 2007–08; Runner-up (1) 2003–04
• Bundesliga: Winner (6) 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2007–08
• German Cup: Winner (8) 1998–99, 1999-00, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2010–11

Carolina Courage

• WUSA Championship: Winner (1) 2002

International

• FIFA World Cup: Winner (2) 2003, 2007 Runner-up (1) 1995
• UEFA European Championship: Winner (5) 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009
• Olympic bronze medal: (3) 2000, 2004, 2008
• Algarve Cup: Winner (1) 2006

Individual

• FIFA World Player of the Year: Winner (3) 2003, 2004, 2005; Runner-up (4) 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
• German Player of the Year: Winner (8) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Second all-time leading goalscorer FIFA Women's World Cup – 14 goals (second to Marta)
• Second all-time leading goalscorer Women's Olympic Football Tournament – 10 goals (second to Cristiane)
• Golden Ball Winner: 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup
• Silver Ball Winner: 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
• Top-scorer 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup
• Top-scorer Bundesliga: (4) 1996–97, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2006–07
• Silbernes Lorbeerblatt: 2007

See also

• List of association women football players with 100 or more international goals
• List of German women's football champions
• List of FIFA Women's World Cup goalscorers
• List of Olympic medalists in football
• Football in Germany

References

Match reports

External links

• Official website (German)
• Profile at the German Football Federation
• Birgit Prinz – FIFA competition record
• Profile at Weltfussball.de (German)
• Profile at Women's United Soccer Association