Fans on DFB.de have cast their votes: the Germany women’s national team player of the year is Isabel Kerschowski of VfL Wolfsburg. This may sound like a surprising result at first, but if one takes a closer look, it’s an obvious choice. Kerschowski has quite a curious record for the DFB Team; she only made one appearance in both 2007 and 2013, before settling in as a regular in Steffi Jones’ team from the start of 2016.
This past year the 28-year-old successfully contributed to the qualification for the European Championships in the Netherlands in July and what’s more, she won the Olympic gold with the DFB Team. On April 8th of last year, she experienced a memorable day, scoring three goals and assisting two in a 6-0 victory over Turkey.
DFB.de: Ms. Kerschowski, congratulations on this award. How proud are you having received it from the fans?
Isabel Kerschowski: Obviously it’s a huge honour for me, but for the most part I’m just surprised - I really wasn’t expecting this. It was only a few days ago, when friends and fans pointed out to me that I was amongst the leaders in the poll, that I started to realize what was going on.
DFB.de: How do you explain winning the poll by such a large margin?
Kerschowski: I can’t; I certainly had a good year, but it wasn’t outstanding. I was able to establish myself in the national team, but other players also performed very, very well this past year.
DFB.de: Perhaps you just have that many fans?
Kerschowski: I do know that I have quite a following behind me. I’ve been very active on Facebook for two years now and try to answer all the questions that I get there. It’s a great way to interact with the fans and to be closer to them. So far I’ve almost exclusively had positive experiences, maybe that’s a reason why I received so many votes.
DFB.de: How was this past year with the national team for you?
Kerschowski: It was extremely exciting and very successful; we managed to qualify for the European Championships later this year in the Netherlands. For a few months now, we’ve have a new coach in Steffi Jones, but the gold medal at the Olympic Games stands above all. The amount of attention that victory generated was amazing. I was able to experience this attention once more during Christmas, when I visited my parents. Even they were constantly asked about the victory and they are very proud.
DFB.de: Your best performance likely came in the 6-0 victory over Turkey, right?
Kerschowski: I scored three goals myself and assisted two more, I’ve never managed something like that before and likely won’t ever again. My first task as a defender is to defend so when I think back on that game I do smile. It was a day when everything came together. It was incredible – everything I attempted worked out.
DFB.de: You touched on the European Championships in the Netherlands in June later this year. What will be Germany’s goal at the competition?
Kerschowski: Our coach has already expressed her desire to once again claim the title for Germany - that should be our aspiration. Every tournament gets tougher, because the competition is making up ground. But we still have every chance to once again be crowned European Champions. We don’t have an easy group with Sweden, Russia and Italy. But as the defending champions we should have enough quality to prevail from our group. The tournament is still quite far away however, which is why I’ll focus on Wolfsburg until then.
Previous winners:
2012: Alexandra Popp
2013: Nadine Keßler
2014: Dzsenifer Marozsan
2015: Lena Goeßling
2016: Isabel Kerschowski
