It was a good evening for the FC Bayern footballers. Start of the Champions League, a sold-out stadium on the campus and in the end a 5-2 win against Arsenal FC. For Maria Luisa Grohs, however, there were two flaws with this game. And especially a scene like the second goal, when Grohs could only watch Laia Codina Panedas’ header after a corner, sometimes annoys Grohs for weeks. She then struggles with herself and the peculiarities of her position, in which she can rarely make amends for mishaps directly. These days, however, she had to look at these scenes strictly analytically. How well she succeeds could determine the next step in her career.
The FC Bayern goalkeeper is currently under special observation. That was the case against Arsenal and it will be the same on Saturday (5:45 p.m., ARD) when their team visits VfL Wolfsburg in the Volkswagen Arena in front of more than 17,000 spectators. The league’s prestige duel has been going on for years, but the conditions are different now. Although the champions meet the cup winners, Wolfsburg is struggling with the upheaval after the departures of top performers Ewa Pajor (FC Barcelona), Dominique Janssen (Manchester United) and Lena Oberdorf (FC Bayern). VfL is currently fourth, five points behind league leaders Munich, their rivals are clearly favorites for VfL coach Tommy Stroot: “Bayern has the density and stability in the squad that is made for the big time. Although I would like to create tension.”
SZ Plus DFB resignation of Alexandra Popp
:Your gut decided
Alexandra Popp is ending her career in the German national team after more than 14 years. In order to fill the gap left by the leader, several female footballers will be needed – national coach Wück has to create a change.
Basically, it may be a preliminary decision at this early stage. For Maria Luisa Grohs, this duel is also a dress rehearsal. If she doesn’t make any serious mistakes, she’ll probably call national coach Christian Wück to find out if she has any plans for the week after next. The fact that this is the case has a lot to do with Merle Frohms, who is in the opposite penalty area on Saturday. In September, Frohms announced that she was resigning from the national team, at just 29 years old and despite the prospect of being promoted back to number one – after losing this status to Ann-Katrin Berger before the Olympics. Her decision came as a surprise; Wück said she would have liked to work with her. Instead, a casting began to determine which goalkeeper would be promoted to the training group with Berger and Stina Johannes. Grohs would be only too happy to take this place. And their chances are good.
Grohs’ coaches praise her mental strength, her sovereignty and her self-confidence
On a warm autumn day, the 23-year-old, nicknamed Mala, sits in a Munich café and reflects on her journey in the football world so far. She exudes the kind of satisfaction when everything is actually going well. Thanks to her, FC Bayern is still undefeated this season; across all seasons there are now 44 games without defeat in the Bundesliga, a record. Last round, Grohs was only overcome eight times on the way to the third championship in four years, by far the best. For her there is no question that she should be included in the DFB circle for the international matches against England on October 25th and Australia on October 28th.
She was already appointed in September 2022, but it wasn’t enough, the competition here is traditionally great and Grohs was sometimes noticed with his insecurities. However, she has retained her perspective from back then; it sounds like a footballer’s phrase, but as a consequence it requires discipline: “I concentrate on improving myself and performing and convincing myself. My strength has always been to go my own way, I can’t lose sight of that.”
This path began in her hometown of Münster at 1. FC Gievenbeck in a boys’ team before she moved to the U17 girls at VfL Bochum. It was more of a coincidence that she ended up at FC Bayern. She went to Airbus in Munich for a school internship, relatives live here, it was a pragmatic decision. Thanks to her Bochum coach’s contact, she was able to train with the Bundesliga team at FC Bayern. The goalkeeping coach at the time, Peter Kargus, wanted to keep them, but Grohs wanted to finish high school first. She came back for the 2019/2020 season, played in the second team and trained with the first team.
In December 2021, regular goalkeeper Laura Benkarth was injured. Janina Leitzig was initially given preference, but Grohs proved herself in this phase after surviving Pfeiffer’s glandular fever, a torn ligament in her thumb, corona, shoulder pain, inflammation of the myocardium and a torn ligament in her foot. “The situation spurred me on and freed me mentally because I knew: I had a completely new chance,” says Grohs. Under coach Alexander Straus, she established herself as number one from summer 2022. “Mala was there to the point. She accepted the fight and delivered,” said Bayern goalkeeping coach Michael Netolitzky. “I always saw a lot in her, but at first I wouldn’t have believed that she would develop so well. A lot came from her.”
At 1.80 meters, Grohs has good qualifications and she spent many hours in the weight room to achieve the necessary athleticism. Both Netolitzky and Straus praise their goalkeeper’s mental strength, her sovereignty and her self-confidence. Grohs puts this package together in a rational way, transferring the analytical way of thinking from her mechanical engineering studies at the Technical University of Munich to football. She ignored all the voices that told her over the years that she needed to work on her charisma and become an extrovert. “I won’t be either. Many people have a fixed image in their head for the goal position, but there is another way,” says Grohs. “I’m not loud, but I try to communicate at the right moments.”
In a certain way, their path runs parallel to the development of the entire team: the foundation was there, as Grohs describes it, then the decisive moment came when structurally “the right adjustment screws were turned at the right time”. In the documentary about the women’s team, Maria Luisa Grohs says that she is more than just a footballer and that she can do even more. This awareness has made her freer; she makes sure to also promote her other talents. She used to want to be an astronaut, and maybe one day she’ll sit in a control room in front of big screens. But first and foremost she wants to be a footballer for FC Bayern – and also the national team.
