Four titles from seven attempts. The Germany U17 national team are the dominative force at the European Championships. Not only have the DFB youngsters been successful, they were good too. Ten players, who once played at that tournament at youth level, were in the squad for the 2015 World Cup in Canada. Shortly before the start of the U17 European Championships in Iceland (22nd June – 4th July), DFB.de looks back on tournaments gone-by and the stand-out players from those competitions.
The first European Championships at U17 level was initiated by UEFA in 2008. Four teams contested for the title at UEFA headquarters in Nyon. It was Germany, who were triumphant at the first attempt. Dzsenifer Marozsan and Alexandra Popp were important players back then, with Tabea Kemme featuring in the 3-0 victory over France in the final – three players from the team back then travelled to Canada for the current World Cup. Svenja Huth, who later went on to represent Germany at senior level, also played in that game in Switzerland back then.
A year later, in 2009, Germany succeeded in defending the title – with a completely different team. They were very comfortable 7-0 winners over Spain in the final. Leonie Maier was in Nyon back then, and is now in Canada for the senior team. Furthermore, Luisa Wensing was one of the promising young players six years ago and would have incredibly been at the World Cup now, should she not have been so seriously injured at the Algarve Cup earlier this year.
No treble, but five senior national team players
The treble just wasn’t to be in 2010. The DFB U17 Women’s team were defeated 1-0 by Ireland in the semi-finals. As a consolation, they secured third spot with a 3-0 triumph against the Netherlands. Not a good year group then? Not true! Jennifer Cramer, Lena Petermann, Lena Lotzen and Melanie Leupolz were in the Germanys quad back then, with this tournament being Luisa Wensing’s second of the kind. Five players, who would eventually go on to feature for the senior women’s side – not bad for an age group.
The year Germany hosted the World Cup, back in 2011, was ill-starred for the U17 team. They unfortunately lost out 6-5 to France on penalties in the semi-finals. They turned this disappointment into energy in the third-place play-off though: Iceland were left without a chance as Germany eased to an 8-2 win. Melanie Leupolz and Lena Petermann both played their second tournament, with Sara Däbritz also featuring in the game.
Back to winning ways with Däbritz
It was Sara Däbritz, who led the German team to their title in 2012 as captain of the side. DFB triumphed 4-1 against France on spot kicks in the final after the score was level 1-1 after regular time. Pauline Bremer cancelled out the French’s opener.
Germany bowed out of the competition in 2012 in the qualifying stages and did not feature at the final stage of the tournament for the first time. The fourth title arrived in 2014. The finals took on an eight-team format for the first time last year, also taking part outside of Switzerland for the first time, in England on this occasion. Germany won 3-1 on penalties against Spain in the final. No players from this age group are yet to make the step up to the senior women’s side…yet.
