Women

Oberdorf shortlisted

She-Wolf Lena Oberdorf among final three nominees for UEFA Women’s Player of the Year.

VfL Wolfsburg have provided two previous winners of the European Player of the Year award – Nadine Keßler (2014) and Pernille Harder (2018 and 2020) both came out on top in the UEFA poll. A third She-Wolf could follow next week, with Lena Oberdorf making it through to the top three alongside Beth Mead (England and Arsenal) and Alexia Putellas (Spain and Barcelona). The winner will be revealed on Thursday 25 August. As is tradition, the prize will be awarded during the draw for the men’s Champions League group stage, which this year takes place in Istanbul. Oberdorf’s teammate Alexandra Popp narrowly missed out on the top three in fourth place, while VfL head coach Tommy Stroot came fifth in the voting for Coach of the Year, where Germany boss Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is on the shortlist.

“Fills me with pride”

Oberdorf was surprised to receive the call at VfL Women’s training camp. “It means a lot to me to be nominated for this award,” said the EURO runner-up as her first reaction. “To be among the best three players in Europe is great recognition of my performances and also shows that I evidently did a lot of things right last season – both for VfL Wolfsburg and the national team. To be in this company at the age of 20 fills me with great pride. At the same time, however, I also know there are lots of things I can and want to work on in order to get better,” she added.