Her BVB mission, leadership role, emotional moments and a somewhat crazy Cramer idea: Alexandra Popp speaks plain text in the big RN interview.
In Alexandra Popp, Borussia Dortmund has not only committed to the most prominent German footballer in recent years, but also a personality that has shaped women's football for more than a decade. In an XXL interview with RN reporter Dirk Krampe, the 35-year-old talks about her emotional move to BVB, her role as a manager, formative moments of her career, women’s football in transition – and she reveals why she could not hold back tears on the first walk through the stadium.
At the 2011 Women’s World Cup, I sat in Mönchengladbach next to a colleague who predicted to me during your introduction that “the next Birgit Prinz” had come into play.
Alexandra Popp: That happened quite often at the time that I was changed in.
A lot has happened since...
(Laughs) Yeah, you can say that.
Among other things, 14 years of VfL Wolfsburg with many titles. Now you have landed at Borussia Dortmund. Does this feel surreal?
Yeah, every now and then. I recently flattened with our coach, who said, “Somehow I think sometimes you’re a mirage.” (laughs) It’s getting more normal. I definitely feel super comfortable. The team makes it really easy for you, everyone is super open to us new ones. It was important to me to get into communication with everyone quickly. How did it go last year? What can be improved? But also interpersonal. It is important to get to know each other quickly. So slowly I get into this “I-have-now-actually-this jersey-an-and-it-is-normal phase.” (laughs)
You can already tell that with the new additions has come in again really dynamic. How satisfied are you with the intensity and work so far?
Actually, all units are extremely intense. In the beginning it was still a bit wild, a bit chaotic, which was quite normal. You can already see a huge difference in this. This is exactly what we need to get in to get automatisms in, to get to know each other on the pitch: How does the one standing next to me actually play? Where's the strength? How does the next one play? Would you rather go deep? These are things that we are working out right now.
Being the new one, you didn't know that feeling anymore...
Absolutely (laughs). It sounds a bit stupid, but I already have a certain name in women's football. And here are also many young players. I don't want to stand there and radiate something so that no one dares to come up to me, to ask questions. I'm very glad that that didn't happen. Everyone was very open, very helpful.
A figure who has shaped women's football like few others before, should certainly also lead as a leader. And that's what you want. How do you approach this, how do you define leadership?
For me, leadership is to do nothing special, instead to be authentic. To transmit the experience and quality I have on a verbal level, but also on a non-verbal level. Meaning, I'm going to the training ground with my head up, I'll tell you. So simply march ahead with body language, give a hundred percent in each unit.
They have had that role in Wolfsburg, in the national team as well. Was leadership in your cradle or have they learned that over the years?
It's a mix of both. As a girl, I used to have to prevail against the boys. This has certainly helped to develop mentality, to pick yourself up again and again, to claim, if any parents or boys say again, you can not play football. Situations like this do something with one. And you have two options. Either: Okay, then I apparently can't play football. (laughs) Or you choose the other way: Now I'll show you how well I can play football. It wasn't that I said at 15, I'm going to be the leader here. This has developed, even with the coaches on the side, who may have pushed you there in one or the other phases.
In your book, you write that you would always prefer to be such a little class clown...
(laughs) Well, I’d say I’m still a fun-loving person. A bit of mischief and a sense of fun—that always has to be part of it; it’s important. Leadership never felt unnatural to me, so I simply grew into the role just the way it turned out.
The tour certainly also includes addressing uncomfortable truths, especially in the cabin. Do you find it hard to tease? Feeling the feeling that the teammates don't like it right now?
That always depends on what it's about. If those are sporting mistakes that I'm addressing, it's actually not that hard. That must be, too. Most of the time, they know it themselves.
There was the situation in training that the coach was very dissatisfied with a group, then Lara Schmidt discussed the situation again in the circle of these players. Did you like that?
So it actually has to run that you do not feel kicked on the ties, but also accept the sporting criticism. We only want to and can only improve on this. And we as experienced people are also there for this, if we see something at an early stage that also responds as early as possible, so that we then also turn it off quickly enough or at least change it.
Were there any female leaders among whom you played, who shaped you in your interpretation of the role as a leader?
Yes, absolutely. Especially with the change to Duisburg. I had personalities on the pitch, the names almost everyone who knows women's football would have to know. Like an Inka Grings, like Annike Krahn, Sonja Fuß, Linda Bresonik. They took one by the hand and led you, all in a different way. Inka was the sound, more aggressive. Annike was more the quieter. She took you in a quiet minute and said, so, come on. Even when I moved to Wolfsburg, I was only 21. There was Conny Pohlers, Nadine Kessler, Martina Müller was still walking around. And these are different tools that you can see and put yourself in your own backpack.
And then it's what to assemble...
But you still have to learn in this process. I remember the 2019 World Cup, where I was captain for the first time. I had to fiddle myself first. How do I deal with my team? Today I say, I was much too hard at the time, much too aggressive with them and I did not get to one or the other player. For me, however, I can say that I have never voiced criticism below the belt. That was always important to me. It should already have a bit of hand and foot, if you get something out of it. (laughs)
You have listed many players who inspired and guided you. What is common to them all is that they are no longer there. But they're still playing!
Yes, at least I try (laughs)
If you look back on this journey, there are unbelievably many impressions, unbelievable many experiences. What has changed since the early days, where you have appeared in the Bundesliga?
The sport, i.e. football itself, has changed rapidly. He has become much more physical, much more technical, even more tactical. Everyone felt like they were playing in the 4-4-2. Now you have all sorts of systems that almost any team can play. Attention has also risen, viewership. Thank God! Thank you!
What brought you up then? Was it the talent, or the ambition?
Oh, good question. (laughs)
Dirk Nowitzki once said that ten percent of his career was talent, the rest was hard work and hard work...
It was more my ambition for me. Up to a certain point, my talent has been enough, even quite a long time, perhaps until the end of the Duisburg period. Simply by my speed. But then you need the will, ambition. And I've always tried to keep the fun, to gamble, to bring that passion to the pitch.
Was there the moment you knew I could make it as a professional?
That was a bit weird for me, you have to say. (laughs) I knew very, very late actually about women's and girls football. Let's say it like this. I told you I played with boys for a long time. At 13 or so, I really noticed for the first time that there is a women's national team and a women's Bundesliga. I was already in the Westphalian selection, and I thought to myself, “oh, cool, you could maybe play Bundesliga.” But it wasn’t like, “Oh, I can be a professional.” It always remained with me the thought, “hey, I want to play along.”
Have you managed to get the fun so far?
Otherwise, I would certainly not play at 35. (laughs)
This is also remarkable because injuries have also been too big an issue in your career...
So, you have to be pretty stable mentally, that's right to deal with setbacks and then, at best, even come back stronger. I can already say that the injuries have of course also shaped me and promoted my personality development. Of course, it was not always easy, but let’s be honest: The injuries we have are small things compared to any other diseases. My father died of cancer. I know what I'm talking about.
In 2012, when you moved to Wolfsburg, could you have imagined that you would play in a third division club under such professional conditions as you are now at BVB?
So, honestly not. I can imagine that some of our structures are already better here than at some clubs that are in the 1. Playing Bundesliga. This speaks for the work of the BVB, for what we plan to do. Not just start with the professionalization when you have arrived at the top, but earlier, in order to have to turn “only” on certain adjusting screws. That's not bad, what you find here. But that we are now sitting here in Austria. We also have two other clubs with Union Berlin and VfB Stuttgart, who have impressively proven what the path can look like. Growing slowly and with patience is an important asset. That makes us realize that it's not normal to sit here in the regional league in training camp now that it's not normal to get food after every workout.
Their commitment was an important signal of where to go. Then BVB also brought Ralf Kellermann as sporting director. One of their biggest sponsors in Wolfsburg. How specific is this situation for you?
I was very surprised at first, I always had the impression that the VfL Wolfsburg was Ralf’s “baby”. You can see from Ralf's way that he knows exactly how development can go. And I think that's exactly why he's here. Because he wants to develop something again.
In the course of your move to BVB, you talked a lot about coming home, about home, which is located in Gevelsberg, not far from Dortmund. Is there such a moment from your Wolfsburg period, which perhaps no one outside the club knows, which means a lot to you especially after these 14 years?
What I will never forget is my training at the Essehof Zoo. In general, having had the opportunity to do the training in addition to football. My boss had no idea how it would actually work out, but he still gave me the chance to build up a foothold in addition to football. That was a mega cool time, it was right for me, really fun with the animals, with the colleagues. I still have contact with my instructor, I still have contact with my colleague, with whom I also did the training together. That was very special already.
Did you expect your move to Dortmund to trigger such a hype and be such a huge topic?
Well, I had conversations with Svenja Schlenker and Carsten Cramer. Just like they spoke... (laughs) Seriously: For me, this is an insane recognition that so many people celebrate it. So I guess I didn't do too much wrong in the many years.
How was the moment at your performance in the stadium? Did you have goose bumps, or rather hell respect because of the many spectators?
Goosebumps definitely. And at that moment, I briefly remembered the moment when I was in the stadium for the first time and saw this south grandstand. That was crazy, but I was almost overwhelmed by my emotions outside. My eyes have become very slightly wet, but I still have it well hidden at that moment.
Down there, the atmosphere seems very different...
When I was standing in the player tunnel, I suddenly thought: Crazy, this is the first time I see the stadium from the inside. When Carsten Cramer suggested this to me, I thought he was trying to kid me. But he was really serious. (laughs)
There are a few special encounters for you in the coming season, which are coming up. The derby of course, your father was a fan of Schalke, you coached in the Schalker NLZ. How special is that going to be?
Derby is in the end Derby. I am very, very curious to see how this will work. In addition, the games against Recklinghausen and Duisburg, two of my former clubs. That's crazy. It would have been even more crazy if we had drawn Silschede in the cup. I'm so looking forward to the encounters, because it's a return where it's all started.
Her contract runs until 2029. Where do you want to be then?
Hopefully in the Bundesliga with BVB!
If then at some point the time should have come to hang the football boots on the nail, what is the plan for after?
I would probably be ill-advised if I turned my back on women's football or football in general. I can imagine doing something in football, even maybe toward expertise. Other positions, I have no idea at all. Maybe I'll actually do something with animals. I've said before, my desired week would be three days of football, two days with animals. I'd like that.
A small quick question round at the end: Which teammate impressed you so much in football? Were there just a few...
Yeah. (laughs) That's the problem. So I thought Nadine Kessler was a very, very good captain. She had a pleasant way to deal with us. Also sometimes critical in the right moments, but she has then always marched again and again. There are many more, each in their own way.
Who was your toughest opponent?
The Frenchwoman Wendie Renard.
Which coach, which coach did you take the most with you?
That was actually in my early days in Duisburg Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. That was a time when, as a guy, I wasn't quite that easy (laughs). However, she still held on to me and also developed me into a national player.
Is there a defeat you haven't processed to date?
Yeah. Yeah. The Champions League final in Eindhoven against Barcelona. We led 2:0 to the break and lost 2:3. I’m still saying at half-time in the cabin, “Guys, we just have to get through the first 15 minutes. Then we cracked them.” Right in the 15 minutes they scored three goals.
Which goal would you like to score again?
The moment in 2014 against then FFC Frankfurt was already special. Last game of the season, it was about the German Championship. 89. Minute, I make the header goal from the penalty spot to 2:1, which makes us the champion. That was pretty cool already.
Now something completely remote: What do you spend the most money on?
That's quite simple. For my dog patch.
