The Big Interview: Pauline Bremer
26-year-old Bremer broke on to the scene 10 years ago as one of Germany's brightest young prospects, but she's now searching for a new challenge after a string of injuries
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Pauline Bremer’s CV reads like a player who is all set for retirement, yet in reality her career is only just getting started.
The Germany international is still just 26 yet has amassed two Champions League titles, two French league titles, two French Cups, an FA Cup, a Continental Cup, the U20 World Cup, U17 European Championship as well as several personal accolades.
Bremer broke onto the scene for historic German side Turbine Potsdam at 16 years old and signed for the dominant side of European football Lyon at just 19, before injuries have knocked her back time and time again.
She has played for top sides in Germany, France and England as well as racking up 21 caps for her national team at senior level, and is now ready to embark on a new challenge after confirming she will leave current club Wolfsburg at the end of the season when her contract expires.
“I think it was a process of a few months really that I have been thinking about my next step because my contract is expiring,” she says. “I was thinking about staying or leaving and I know I am here at a really good club, but I was also looking at a new challenge because I have been here three years now and just recently our squad is really, really strong and I didn’t get as much game time as I wanted.
“That was the main point I was thinking about when making my next step and taking on a new challenge with a bigger role for me personally in a team.”
It’s not yet been confirmed where Bremer will head to, but with talent and experience behind her, yet still plenty to offer in her future, there’s no doubting that she won’t have been short of good offers for her next move.
“It’s important to spread the word women can do football too…”
You can almost split Bremer’s 10-year senior career into several chapters. Unlike many, it wasn’t an older brother that got Bremer interested in football, but a movie back home in Germany when she was a child.
“No, it was different for me…” she laughs, when I mention has she is one of a few not to have relied on an older brother.
“It actually started when I watched a movie in Germany, it’s called `Die Wilden Kerle`. It’s a movie for kids, kids who are just playing football and I was really inspired by the young kids in the movie and then I wanted to play football myself.
“I went to my first soccer holiday camp in Germany and then I started with my two sisters and since then I was in love with the game. I just continued playing, I wanted to play as much as possible and I felt ‘ok, I could do this professionally’.”
When Bremer was just 11, Germany won the World Cup in 2007 after a run of dominance in European football which would continue at both Euro 2009 and Euro 2013, and she had the rare privilege of being able to grow up with a female role model because of how much interest there was in women’s football at home due to Germany’s constant success on the international stage.
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