The Ballon d’Or winner for Women’s football, Germany’s Nadine Angerer, has admitted that the most important quality for aspiring players to have is that of leadership.
Angerer, who has been capped 127 times for Germany, led the team to their Euro 2013 victory in Sweden last summer, and she was pleasantly surprised by her award in Zurich last week. However, she added that it was important for a player to stand out both on and off the pitch.
And with the absence of six key German players at the competition last year, sites like 888sport had received bets that they would not win the competition. Despite that, Angerer felt it was time for her to step up and become a leader.
“You need to make your presence felt, on and off the pitch. I’ve developed over the course of these 17 years, and not just on a personal level. I’ve worked on my game, and the training I’ve done with Michael Fuchs (Germany’s goalkeeping coach) has helped me improve an awful lot.” – Nadine Angerer
The goalkeeper also highlighted an interesting point about goalkeepers not receiving the kind of attention other outfield players do. Indeed, it’s a regular phenomenon in football, especially with goalkeepers receiving separate training from their colleagues. While they’re often seen as “lone rangers”, it’s not a position to be taken lightly.
“Keepers were often seen as the weak link, and it was a kind of neglected position in a lot of teams. The outfield players got all the attention and the goalkeepers were forgotten about to some extent. These days, however, coaches are well aware of just how important a position it is, and you now see a lot of ambitious projects that give the better keepers the coaching they need.” – Angerer
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