BVB new signing Alexandra Popp impressed: „That was next level“ | OneFootball

Next summer, Alexandra Popp will begin a new chapter. The 35-year-old VfL Wolfsburg striker is set to join Borussia Dortmund in the late autumn of her career. However, it is still unclear which league she will be playing in.

BVB’s goal is to reach the Bundesliga. But at the moment, the elevator upward is a little stuck. League leaders 1. FC Köln II have pulled five points clear in the Regionalliga. However, Dortmund’s women have played one match fewer.

“The Regionalliga would be tough, no question,” Popp says in an interview with 11Freunde (print edition). But the prospect of some hard tackles from her opponents does not intimidate the 145-time international: “I’m experienced enough to decide for myself which challenges I go into and when I hold back because things could get rough.”

The Witten native has been playing for VfL Wolfsburg since 2012, winning the Champions League twice and the German championship seven times. With the German national team, she won the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.

But her presentation in front of a sold-out Signal Iduna Park was a very special experience even for the experienced Popp. “When Nobby Dickel (stadium announcer, editor’s note) called my name over the stadium speakers and the incredible atmosphere from the stands spilled onto the pitch, I briefly went from goosebumps to tears of joy,” the veteran recalls, adding: “I’d never experienced anything like that before.”

At the stadium in a Möller jersey

She thinks back to the time in 1996 when, “as a five-year-old wearing an Andy Möller jersey and holding my mother’s hand, I went to the Westfalenstadion for the first time for the game against Bayern.” Even back then, she says, “the sheer force of the Südtribüne overwhelmed” her.

Instead of extending her stay in Wolfsburg by another two years, Popp decided to move to Dortmund. She signed with BVB until 2029. After that, she is also expected to “remain with the club even after the end of her career,” as she herself explains.

Photo: IMAGO

For now, however, VfL remains the priority. Wolfsburg’s women will face FC Bayern Munich in the DFB Cup final on May 14. Popp, who has been sidelined for weeks with a torn muscle fiber, is working intensively on her comeback. “It’s going well,” kicker quotes her as saying. The goal is clear: “It would mean an incredible amount to me to bring the cup back to Wolfsburg one more time.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.