There is probably no allotment garden at home in Straelen that is as well protected as this training ground. Black privacy screens and attentive security guards outside, another white fence inside, which could also be somewhere in the Australian outback around a paddock: This is the area in which Martina Voss-Tecklenburg moves with a whistle these days. The area behind Tuggerah Lake on the Central Coast reserved for the German women’s national team at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is so remote that the world association FIFA didn’t even put up advertising posters. That’s why the complex looks a bit like a lost village sports field.
Only where the national coach practices with her large team of helpers and the 24 players is the grass really green. The remaining areas are rather unkempt. But she and her assistant trainer Britta Carlson were there twice to examine everything up close. In the end, the decision was made to go to the small town of Wyong, which is “far off the beaten path”, as midfielder Lina Magull put it. Variety in the winter months? none. Central Sydney is almost two hours by train and one and a half hours by car.
That’s why the delegation went whale watching a week before the opening game against Morocco (Monday 10.30 a.m. CEST/ZDF) and had a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience in Sydney Bay, as defender Sophia Kleinherne said, because whales actually jumped out of the water before their eyes. Finally, some took the bus to Wyee Point, a residential area where kangaroos frolic at dusk. The national coach knows that this district, which was built primarily for older golfers, is a fine line to walk. Her argument: “We asked the players beforehand. The first answer, what is important to them, always comes: a short walk to the training ground. That is the absolute priority!”
Only: If the mission to the third star fails early, many will say that the women in Australia made the same mistake as the men in Qatar, quartering themselves so far away from real life. The World Cup on the fifth continent places high demands on all 32 teams in terms of logistics and climate. Germany only intervenes in the tournament against the North Africans when all the favorites have already played. But the almost sold-out stadium in Melbourne shows how much the two-time world champion is valued.
Voss-Tecklenburg knows that the third world title after 2003 and 2007 is a very ambitious goal in view of the growing competition. The games have become much more physical. Added to this is the treacherous game plan. A round of 16 against Brazil or France can easily be lost without doing too much wrong. Colombia (July 30) and South Korea (August 3) are still waiting in the preliminary round – both opponents are ranked higher than Morocco. Actually, winning the group would be a must, but the friendlies against Vietnam (2-1) and Zambia (2-3) showed that a lot of things are not going well this year. The trainer only very quietly combats the high expectations. After all, she is extremely ambitious herself – and yet “more relaxed than before”, as assistant coach Carlson reveals, who is almost always at the national coach’s side. The two are friends and coordinate everything, with the boss being the one who frightens the support crew with a ball shot across. In this job you have to have fun.
After the experiment with Steffi Jones had failed miserably and Horst Hrubesch had managed a transitional phase, the German Football Association brought in its national coach in autumn 2018, who was now tied until 2025. She does not yet have a track record like Gero Bisanz (three titles), Tina Theune or Silvia Neid (four titles each), but she has long been considered the perfect solution for a crisis-ridden association. She has played a major role in the fact that the DFB women are seen as figureheads with positive radiance thanks to their authentic appearances as vice European champions. It conveys professional competence and leadership strength. And nobody can imagine a better moderator for the social statements.
The 55-year-old does not want to be put in front of everyone either: Chancellor Olaf Scholz is happy to demand equal pay for the bonuses – the national coach does not follow. “We know where we come from.” She herself comes from Duisburg, in the middle of the rough Ruhr area. “My parents made it a priority for us to say ‘thank you’ and ‘please’. They raised five children in difficult circumstances.” The father worked rotating shifts at Thyssen, and the mother cleaned in a kindergarten alongside her upbringing. At first the mother didn’t want her daughter to play soccer, so she tried handball, athletics and table tennis first. It was only at the age of 15 that she was able to play football in a club.
She then played 125 international matches, was twice Germany’s footballer of the year (1996 and 2000), four times European champion (1989, 1991, 1995 and 1997) – but never world champion. After that, she learned the coaching job from scratch. After working as a sports teacher for the Niederrhein region, at the Bundesliga clubs FCR 2001 Duisburg and FF USV Jena and as a national coach for Switzerland, the career move to the DFB was a logical step. She wants to develop something with the German national team, of course win titles – and stand for certain values.
Her private life is characterized by major breaks that illustrate an amazing ability to change, which she spoke openly about in the NDR series “Sportclub Story”. About her years as a single mom after getting pregnant unplanned. About the balancing act between professional life and competitive sport. “There were moments when it was borderline, when I was helpless. Without the help of my sister and my family, I could not have done it and had to decide against football.” Before the Olympic Games in 2000, she was kicked out of the DFB selection because trainer Theune wanted to keep the public rift with her then partner Inka Grings away from the national team.
Voss-Tecklenburg made her peace with everyone today. With her ex-boyfriend and ex-coach from KBC Duisburg, Jürgen Krust, or with Grings, who looks after the Swiss national team at the World Cup. Did the national coach want to show that the world is more colorful than many people think? “I’m just a very open person who mostly stands by what he does in his life.” Despite all the controversy, she wants to continue to look such people in the eye with respect. After all, they took on responsibility: “Jürgen and I for a child, Inka and I for other things and Hermann for a company.” She means her husband Hermann Tecklenburg: She met the contractor when she said goodbye to the active stage in 2003 with an own goal in the cup final of FCR 2001 Duisburg. Her speech at the banquet was so stirring that he then wrote “I will marry you” with a pen on her upper arm, as the national coach herself said on the TV show “Inas Nacht”. The great love lasts to this day – a month ago both renewed their wedding vows.
But what counts now is this tournament, her third as a coach. Her eyes lit up when she first stepped onto this stage with Switzerland at the 2015 World Cup. On artificial turf in Canada, despite two defeats, a single victory against Ecuador was enough to secure the ticket to the round of 16. In gratitude, the host waited for the third in the group. Huge setting in Vancouver, great atmosphere. And a respectable farewell. Nobody was mad. When she had just taken over the German national team before the 2019 World Cup in France, her best players – Alexandra Popp, Dzsenifer Marozsan and Melanie Leupolz – shouted in a commercial: “We play for a nation that doesn’t know our names”. The end in the quarterfinals against Sweden was still avoidable. Voss-Tecklenburg admitted mistakes – and did almost everything better at the European Championships in England. Early on, she committed herself to a solid framework and defined roles. Sophisticated match plans worked out like self-fulfilling prophecies.
But Neid won the last title in 2016 with Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro for the DFB women. For a long time, envy and today’s national coach only talked about the bare essentials, but that has changed too. As head of trend scouting for women’s footballers, the 59-year-old creates a comprehensive analysis that Voss-Tecklenburg says will help. Unlike the highly successful, but often uncompromising success coach, Voss-Tecklenburg works more in a team, involves more followers – and keeps asking the players. Feedback is extremely important to her. She’s not someone who wants to bang her head against the wall. When the 2003 world champions met again, Neid emphasized that the national coach “puts things in a nutshell, that she is very communicative, that she can read a game well, that she is able to change a game with a substitution.”
Voss-Tecklenburg has already taken on so many perspectives in life that she can generally quickly classify trends: She trained as an office clerk, made a diploma as a social worker, worked as editor-in-chief of the women’s football magazine FF. When she analyzes the men’s Champions League as an expert on ZDF, she comes across as almost too matter-of-fact because she then only focuses on football. She has a lot more to say. A few (female) voices recently came from the DFB Presidium, but it should be considered whether Voss-Tecklenburg should not save the 2024 home European Championship. Responsible for the men’s national team. For them, it’s “not an issue at all.” Actually, as a woman with so many facets, she shouldn’t have to rule out anything, but that seems as far away as Wyong von Straelen.
