Lena Oberdorf, 22, musste früh lernen, mit Druck umzugehen. Seit sie mit 17 Jahren das erste Mal in der Nationalmannschaft auftrat, gilt die Mittelfeldspielerin als das größte Talent im deutschen Frauenfußball, im DFB-Team ist sie eine der stärksten Spielerinnen. In diesem Sommer wechselte sie für rund 450.000 Euro zum FC Bayern und wurde zum teuersten Transfer der Bundesliga-Geschichte.
Bis Oberdorf, die auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse ihre Biographie „Lena Oberdorf – Das große Fanbuch“ vorgestellt hat, aber für ihren neuen Verein spielen kann, wird es noch etwas dauern: Nach einer Kreuz- und Innenbandverletzung will sie im Frühjahr wieder auf dem Platz stehen.
Ich kann mich nicht beschweren. Die Reha läuft ganz gut, aber natürlich dauert es noch ein bisschen, bis ich wieder auf dem Platz stehen kann. Ich bin mittlerweile an einem Punkt angekommen, an dem ich mich mit der Verletzung abgefunden habe. Jetzt geht es nur noch nach vorne.
Ich habe ein Knallgeräusch gehört und wusste sofort, dass das Kreuzband gerissen ist. Lea Schüller (Oberdorfs beste Freundin, Anm. d. Red.) hat in der Kabine zwar noch versucht, mir gut zuzureden, aber mir ist in dem Moment schon klar gewesen, dass die Saison für mich vorbei ist und ich auch nicht zu Olympia kann. Das ist schon brutal, wenn man checkt, dass man so viel verpasst und die Zeit auch nicht mehr zurückbekommt.
Would you say that the injury – so close to the Olympics – was the biggest disappointment in your life so far?
Yes, especially when I think about the fact that I would have gone to Paris a week later. This experience opened my eyes and showed me once again that football is what makes me happy. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case during my time in Wolfsburg. I’ve sometimes asked myself whether football is really what I want for my life, or whether I’m just doing it because I’m good at it.
Did you find it difficult to accept that your body no longer wants to do what it used to?
I still experience this moment every day in rehab when I do new exercises. One requires me to get up on the balls of my feet and then fall onto one leg. It probably took two or three minutes before I finally had the courage to do this movement with my right hand. I would say the biggest problem with an injury like this is not the body, but the head. You no longer trust your knee to hold you up. But the good thing is: once you’ve overcome yourself, you’ll do the exercise next time without thinking about it for too long. Hopefully that’s how it will be when I’m back on the pitch.
How did you deal with the injury so that it didn’t become a mental strain for you?
It’s more like finding a way to cope with the situation. I never learned how to deal with rest before and had to get used to being able to enjoy the rest I have now. I found this path in music. I got my old guitar out of the basement and started taking music lessons again. But I would be lying if I said that rehab is easy and I am making progress every day. That’s not the case. Sometimes you stand still, maybe even take steps backwards, but you can’t let that get you down.
How do you manage to develop new motivation after such a setback?
It helped me to know what I was doing it for: for the moments with the team on the pitch.
But can’t that also create pressure to want to play again as quickly as possible?
Of course, I have the European Championships in mind next year, where I want to be in the squad again. But you shouldn’t focus too much on it, you have to set small goals and celebrate when you achieve them.
At just 22 years old, you have already achieved a number of successes. You won the league and cup with Wolfsburg, reached the finals of the Champions League and the European Championship, and won the Fritz Walter Gold Medal. Does something like this inspire you or does it put you under pressure?
I would say it’s a little bit of both. The 2022 Ballon d’Or awards, where I came fourth behind Alexia Putellas, Beth Mead and Sam Kerr, made me a little nervous because I knew it would put me under special scrutiny. But if you develop strategies to deal with the increased expectations, such awards can also motivate you.
Can you give an example?
At VfL Wolfsburg I worked a lot with our mental coach Robin. Last season I had a difficult phase in which I didn’t play the way people normally expect me to. Through working with Robin, I regained the fun of football and was able to perform better again. For example, he gave me two pieces of paper, one blank and one that said what the media had written about me. He asked me, “Do you want to be what people say you are, or do you want to decide for yourself who you are?” That was a method that made me realize that I only listen to the people who are close to me should. Nobody knows the tactics that the coach gave or knows that they took paracetamol before the game so that they could play despite the pain. It helps to only measure yourself based on what those around you expect of you.
You have been under contract with FC Bayern since the summer. How did you perceive the sometimes violent reactions to your change?
There were some comments that went below the belt. I temporarily uninstalled Instagram from my phone and asked my manager to take care of the postings. I simply didn’t have the capacity for that and wanted to concentrate on finishing the season well with Wolfsburg.
Were you surprised that the reactions were so extreme?
I wasn’t surprised by the comments. I had already expected that the reactions would not be particularly friendly because I had switched to a direct competitor. But I wouldn’t have thought that it would turn out like this, and I’m the kind of person who says quite clearly: “It doesn’t work like that.”
Has the new national coach Christian Wück actually contacted you since your injury?
Yes, he was partly in the stadium and then we talked a bit. He told me that I should be patient, and when I replied that it wasn’t exactly my specialty, he just said: “Yes, I’ve heard that.”
What do you expect from him?
I think we will continue to refine our style of play under him. He will ensure that we can be free on the pitch, but still play with the necessary structure and the same intensity that his predecessor Horst Hrubesch taught us.
And how is he human?
From the way I got to know him, Christian is a trainer who can demonstrate a lot of empathy. He will find a good way to communicate with the players while maintaining the honest manner that Horst exemplified until the end.
A big challenge awaits Wück. With Marina Hegering, Merle Frohms and long-time captain Alexandra Popp, several leading players have announced their resignation from the national team.
It will be an enormous change, but Christian can also see it as an opportunity to form and build a new team. The opportunity is greater than the risk and that’s why I believe he will do very well. I’m excited to see how we do in the first international matches under him.
How do you define your own role in the DFB team? After your injury, will you try to move into the gap left by Hegering, Frohms and Popp?
I am a player who can take on a lot of responsibility and will continue to do so. I’m on the team council and even though I’m injured at the moment, I try to support the team in whatever way I can help. But I don’t really want to talk about roles. For me, the first thing is to get back to the form I was in before the injury.
What makes a good leader for you?
That you look for conversations off the pitch, that you pay attention to everyone and also include players who perhaps don’t get as much playing time, and that you make sure that the mood within the team is right. And that you anticipate things on the pitch when things aren’t going well, that you build up the team and that you know what makes the individual players tick.
So actually a profile that you would fit in quite well.
