Prinz, Birgit

Birgit Prinz, (born October 25, 1977, Frankfurt am Main, West Germany [now Germany]), German football (soccer) player who was considered by many to be Europe’s finest female footballer of the 1990s and 2000s.

Prinz was an all-around sports enthusiast as a young girl, with swimming, trampoline, and athletics among her varied outdoor pursuits. Her football-playing father encouraged her to take up that sport too, coaching her while she played as a youth for SV Dörnigheim and FC Hochstadt. In 1992 she changed clubs to FSV Frankfurt, and two years later she moved on to the top-level league (Bundesliga) FFC Frankfurt. At age 16 she made her international debut for the German national women’s team as a 72nd-minute substitute in a game against Canada; she scored in the 89th minute to secure a 2–1 victory for Germany. At more than 5 feet 10 inches (1.79 metres), Prinz was taller than most of her contemporaries, with a physical fitness level above most of the other players on the team. With drive, speed, and an accurate finish in front of goal, she was widely regarded as the number one player in Europe. Prinz’s team claimed four European championships, two Union of European Football Associations Cups, eight German league championships, and eight domestic cup trophies.

Because German women’s football was played at a semiprofessional level, however, she broadened her experience in 2002 by playing a season in the United States for the professional Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) team Carolina Courage, helping it win the WUSA championship before she returned to FFC Frankfurt. In addition to three consecutive Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Player of the Year awards (2003–05) and three Olympic bronze medals (2000, 2004, and 2008), Prinz secured two Women’s World Cup trophies. In the 2007 Cup final against Brazil in Shanghai—her third World Cup final—Prinz opened the scoring in the 52nd minute on the way toward a 2–0 win for Germany’s second straight Women’s World Cup title. It was a record 14th goal in Cup matches for Prinz. (Her mark was broken in 2015 by Brazil’s Marta.) Her play leveled off, and she was removed from the German national team’s starting lineup during the 2011 Women’s World Cup. She retired in May 2012.

Originally trained as a masseuse and later qualified as a physiotherapist, she later studied for a degree in psychology at the University of Frankfurt. In November 2007 Prinz was awarded the Hessian Order of Merit for her outstanding success as a personality in the community.