Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is going to England for the European Championships with a good feeling. In her own words, she doesn't feel any more than the usual pressure to succeed as a national coach.
National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is looking forward to the European Championships in England
She doesn't want to be “the Martina with the raised index finger”, said national coach Voss-Tecklenburg at the last press round before leaving for the European Championships in England. She wanted to give the players “even more freedom, even more looseness” and had decreed to “take me back and stay calm”.
Martina Voss-Tecklenburg not only talks about serenity, but also seems to have made it her own. On the outside, the 54-year-old looks as if she is at peace with herself and her work. The 7-0 thrashing of the last European Championship friendly against Switzerland makes Voss-Tecklenburg travel to England with a good feeling. But of course she knows that a national coach is measured by her successes. And that the German Football Association (DFB) will keep a close eye on the performances of the national team at the European Championship – even if Voss-Tecklenburg's contract runs until August 2023.
Claim: Be among the favorites for the title< /h2>
At her first tournament as national coach, the 2019 World Cup in France, Voss-Tecklenburg was only at the post for a good six months. And yet there was criticism of her after the quarter-final against Sweden. Because the team had with the early K.o. also gambled away the ticket for the Olympic Games in Tokyo – and with it what Voss-Tecklenburg had announced as a goal for the World Cup. Two years later, the national coach is self-critical looking back.
Voss-Tecklenburg wants their players like Don't overwhelm Giulia Gwinn (left)
“I think I unknowingly overwhelmed one or the other,” says Voss-Tecklenburg about the way she treated her players at the time. She worked on that with her coaching team. “It's gotten better. We've grown together.” Does she now feel under more pressure at the EM than at the 2019 World Cup? “I don't feel any more pressure than we put on ourselves,” replies Voss-Tecklenburg. “And our aim is to be one of the favorites for the title.”
As a player four times European champion
From her active time as a national player, the national coach knows how winning a European Championship can work. Four times – in 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997 – Voss-Tecklenburg was European champion with the DFB team and once vice world champion. The midfielder's style of play has often been compared to 1990 World Champion Pierre Littbarski. By the end of her career, she had won 125 international matches and a total of six German championship titles and four cup wins. She was slowed down several times by serious injuries, for example at the 1997 European Championships and the 1999 World Cup.
Martina Voss with her former teammates Pia Wunderlich (left) and Maren Meinert (right) after the 1997 European Championship triumph
Voss experienced one of the biggest disappointments when the then national coach Tina Theune-Meyer threw her out of the squad five months before the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The reason for the eviction was apparently a private dispute between Voss and her partner Inka Grings, with whom she lived for a total of six years. “For me, it's absolutely horrifying not being able to take part in the Olympics,” said Voss at the time. “I can't understand that and I can't accept it either.” Years later, in an interview with the news magazine “Der Spiegel”, she suspected that the male-dominated DFB was apparently afraid of addressing the issue of homosexuality in women's football.
Time with men , daughter and grandchild
In 2009, Voss married the Düsseldorf building contractor Hermann Tecklenburg. She has an adult daughter from a previous relationship. The national coach has been a grandmother for four months. Voss-Tecklenburg says she wants to use the last free weekend before the European Championships to spend time with her family.
“Tension and nervousness aren't there yet,” said the national coach. “But that will come.” At the latest on Friday next week (July 8), when Group B's opening game against Denmark is scheduled. After all, the Danes had advanced to the final at the EM 2017, where they had to admit defeat to the EM hosts from the Netherlands. They had sent the DFB team home in the previous quarter-finals.
Voss-Tecklenburg had coached the Swiss team at the finals of the European Championship. The German coached the Swiss for six and a half years – with considerable success: After all, Switzerland qualified for a World Cup under Voss-Tecklenburg for the first time in 2014 and made it to the round of 16 at the 2015 tournament in Canada.
Ripe for the title?
As head of the German team, which has been accustomed to success for decades, the bar is higher. “I want to win titles,” Voss-Tecklenburg announced when she was presented as the new national coach in November 2018. With eight triumphs, Germany has won more European Championships than any other nation.
Voss-Tecklenburg did not mention the goal of the European Championship title during the final press round before the tournament in England. She formulates her goals more carefully. She wants to “see a confident team on the pitch,” says the national coach. “What counts for me is that everyone pushes their limits and gives everything that the tournament requires.” That includes herself and her assistants, according to Voss-Tecklenburg: “The coaching team must also be ready for the title.” And all without a warning index finger.