Alexandra Popp

Alexandra Popp ([alɛˈksandʁa ˈpɔp];born 6 April 1991) is a German footballer and Olympic gold medalist. She plays as a striker for VfL Wolfsburg and the German national team. She previously played for FCR 2001 Duisburg and 1. FFC Recklinghausen. She was twice named German Footballer of the Year in 2014 and 2016, and in February 2019 was named captain of the national team.

Alex Popp with Duisburg in 2011.

Club

Popp started her career at FC Silschede, playing there in mixed-gender teams until she reached the age limit of 14. Later she changed to 1. FFC Recklinghausen and played three years before joining the Bundesliga side FCR 2001 Duisburg in 2008. She had also been approached by French champions Olympique Lyonnais at the time, but chose Duisburg. Popp made her Bundesliga debut in September 2008 against Herforder SV and scored her first two goals three weeks later in an 8–0 win over TSV Crailsheim.

In her first year at Duisburg, Popp won the Double: the 2009 UEFA Women's Cup and the 2009 German Cup. She was awarded the 2009 Fritz Walter medal in silver as the year's second best female junior player. One year later, she again claimed the German Cup title and finished runner-up with Duisburg in the 2009–10 Bundesliga season. Because Duisburg had major injury worries during the 2010-11 season, Popp played the majority of matches at left back.

In the 2012-13 season she moved with her club teammate Luisa Wensing to VfL Wolfsburg. In her first season there she won the Treble (association football) with the Frauen-Bundesliga championship, the DFB-Pokal Frauen and the UEFA Women's Champions League.

A year later Wolfsburg successfully defended their title the UEFA Women's Euro 2013. For the Bundesliga championship, it came down to a match on the final day of the season against the previously unbeaten 1. FFC Frankfurt. Frankfurt needed only a draw to win the championship, while Wolfsburg needed to win. Popp scored the winning goal in the 89th minute, and Wolfsburg was again victorious in the DFB-Pokal.

International

At the 2008 UEFA U-17 Women's Championship, Popp won her first international title with Germany, scoring the team's second goal in the final. The same year, she reached third-place at the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. In February 2010, Popp made her debut for Germany's senior national team in a friendly match against North Korea. Less than two weeks later she scored her first two international goals at the 2010 Algarve Cup in a 7–0 win over Finland.

Popp returned to junior competition for the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, which was held on home soil in Germany. She won the title with the German team and was the tournament's break-out star, being honoured as the best player and top goalscorer. She scored in every game, and with ten goals she holds the scoring record for that tournament (together with Sydney Leroux and Christine Sinclair).

Popp was then called up for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup squad. She played in all four games for the host nation, coming on as a substitute, but the Germans placed only sixth, defeated in extra time by eventual champions Japan. Later that year, she played in the European Championship qualifier against Kazakhstan, where she and teammate Célia Šašić (nee Okoyino da Mbabi) each contributed four goals to a record 17-0 victory. With this achievement she became the seventh German woman to score four goals in an international game.

On May 24, 2015, Silvia Neid named Popp to the senior team for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. In Canada the team reached fourth place, defeating seeded teams Sweden and France but again falling to the eventual champions, the United States. Popp started in four of the team's seven games, scoring once.

Popp was called up again for the 2016 Summer Olympics, where Germany won the gold medal. She played in all six games, contributing a goal and two assists. Each player on the team received a Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, Germany's highest sports honor, for their performance.

In the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 tournament she played with the senior team, losing in the quarterfinals to Denmark.

She is the captain of the squad for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. She played every minute of the group stage games and scored a header versus South Africa. She made her 100th appearance for Germany on 22 June 2019, where she also scored the first goal against Nigeria.

International goals

Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first:

Popp – goals for Germany
#	Date	Location	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	26 February 2010	Parchal, Portugal	Finland	2–0	7–0	2010 Algarve Cup
2.				4–0
3.	15 September 2010	Dresden, Germany	Canada	3–0	5–0	Friendly
4.	25 November 2010	Leverkusen, Germany	Nigeria	6–0	8–0
5.	3 June 2011	Osnabrück, Germany	Italy	2–0	5–0
6.				5–0
7.	7 June 2011	Aachen, Germany	Netherlands	3–0	5–0
8.	16 June 2011	Mainz, Germany	Norway	2–0	3–0
9.				3–0
10.	26 October 2011	Hamburg, Germany	Sweden	1–0	1–0
11.	19 November 2011	Wiesbaden, Germany	Kazakhstan	2–0	17–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying
12.				4–0
13.				8–0
14.				12–0
15.	5 March 2012	Parchal, Portugal	Sweden	4–0	4–0	2012 Algarve Cup
16.	31 March 2012	Mannheim, Germany	Spain	3–0	5–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying
17.	31 May 2012	Bielefeld, Germany	Romania	2–0	5–0
18.				4–0
19.				5–0
20.	26 October 2013	Koper, Slovenia	Slovenia	13–0	13–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
21.	23 November 2013	Žilina, Slovakia	Slovakia	5–0	6–0
22.	27 November 2013	Osijek, Croatia	Croatia	6–0	8–0
23.	5 March 2014	Albufeira, Portugal	Iceland	5–0	5–0	2014 Algarve Cup
24.	29 October 2014	Örebro, Sweden	Sweden	2–1	2–1	Friendly
25.	6 March 2015	Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal	China PR	2–0	2–0	2015 Algarve Cup
26.	9 March 2015	Parchal, Portugal	Brazil	1–0	3–1
27.	11 March 2015	Parchal, Portugal	Sweden	2–0	2–1
28.	7 June 2015	Ottawa, Canada	Ivory Coast	10–0	10–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
29.	18 September 2015	Halle, Germany	Hungary	1–0	12–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying
30.				9–0
31.	22 September 2015	Zagreb, Croatia	Croatia	1–0	1–0
32.	8 April 2016	Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	4–0	6–0
33.				5–0
34.	22 July 2016	Paderborn, Germany	Ghana	3–0	11–0	Friendly
35.	3 August 2016	São Paulo, Brazil	Zimbabwe	2–0	6–1	2016 Summer Olympics
36.	20 October 2017	Wiesbaden, Germany	Iceland	1–1	2–3	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
37.	24 October 2017	Großaspach, Germany	Faroe Islands	1–0	11–0
38.				6–0
39.	24 November 2017	Bielefeld, Germany	France	1–0	4–0	Friendly
40.				3–0
41.	10 April 2018	Domžale, Slovenia	Slovenia	3–0	4–0	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
42.	4 September 2018	Tórshavn, Faroe Islands	Faroe Islands	6–0	8–0
43.				8–0
44.	6 October 2018	Essen, Germany	Austria	1–0	3–1	Friendly
45.	9 April 2019	Paderborn, Germany	Japan	1–1	2–2
46.	30 May 2019	Regensburg, Germany	Chile	1–0	2–0
47.	17 June 2019	Montpellier, France	South Africa	3–0	4–0	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
48.	22 June 2019	Grenoble, France	Nigeria	1–0	3–0	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup

Source:

Popp attended Gesamtschule Berger Feld in Gelsenkirchen, one of four facilities certified as "elite schools of football" by the German Football Association. She was the school's sole female pupil and could only attend courtesy of a special permit. She studied and trained with junior players of the German men's Bundesliga side FC Schalke 04. Popp left school after the 12th grade with a Fachabitur diploma. Following a one-year internship at a physiotherapist, Popp successfully completed a three-year apprenticeship to become a zookeeper at Tierpark Essehof in Lehre.

In interviews she has declared herself a fan of Borussia Dortmund.

Popp with the DFB-Pokal trophy in 2013.

Club

FCR 2001 Duisburg

• UEFA Women's Champions League: Winner 2008–09
• Bundesliga: Runner-up 2009–10
• DFB-Pokal: Winner 2008–09, 2009–10

VfL Wolfsburg

• UEFA Women's Champions League: Winner 2012–13, 2013–14
• Bundesliga: Winner 2012–13, 2013–14, 2016–17, 2017–18,2018–19
• DFB-Pokal: Winner 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17,2017–18, 2018–19

International

• FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup: Winner 2010
• FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup: Third-place 2008
• UEFA U-17 Women's Championship: Winner 2008
• Algarve Cup: Winner 2012, 2014
• Summer Olympic Games: Gold medal, 2016

Individual

• UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship: Golden Player 2008
• Fritz Walter Medal: Silver 2009
• Golden Ball – FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
• Golden Shoe – FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
• Footballer of the Year in Germany: 2014, 2016
• Silbernes Lorbeerblatt: Winner 2016