German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer faces her retirement
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Nadine Angerer long ago started a bucket list of what she wants to do in retirement.
The only goalkeeper — male or female — to be named FIFA’s world player of the year will have a sellout crowd for her farewell game Sunday when the Portland Thorns host the Washington Spirit.
A fixture on the German national team since 2007 and a fan favorite for the NWSL’s Thorns, Angerer announced her intention to retire from the game before the Women’s World Cup this year. She vowed to finish out the season with Portland before saying goodbye.
“I have a looonnng list. I wrote this list the last two years, things I want to do” Angerer said with a laugh about retirement. “But for the first half year, the plan is not to have a plan. Enjoy day by day.”
Angerer’s retirement signals something of an end of an era for the German national team. Beloved coach Silvia Neid will also step down next year, and striker Celia Sasic unexpectedly announced her retirement last month before winning the UEFA women’s player of the year award. Sasic wants to pursue her education and start a family.
Germany, ranked No. 1 in the world going into this year’s World Cup, finished the monthlong tournament in Canada a disappointing fourth.
At 36, Angerer steps away as one of the most accomplished female goalkeepers to play the game.
She rode the bench for the German team for 10 years behind goalkeeper Silke Rottenberg. Her chance came in 2007, when Rottenberg tore an ACL, Angerer was named the team’s starting goalkeeper for the 2007 World Cup in China.
Angerer did not concede a single goal during the tournament, setting a World Cup record at the time for most minutes played (540) without being scored on. One of her most memorable moments came during that World Cup final against Brazil when she stopped a penalty kick from five-time FIFA Player of the Year Marta and Germany won 2-0.
She also was in goal for European titles in 2009 and 2013. For the latter title, she saved two penalty kicks in Germany’s 1-0 victory over Norway. That earned her FIFA’s highest individual award for her play in 2013.
“I won a lot of titles with the national team, a lot of important titles, and also on the club levels I won a lot of titles. I can’t name just one. There are a lot of nice memories,” she said. “I made a lot of friendships for forever, so that’s perfect.”
On the club level, Angerer joined the Thorns last year, earning a whole new cadre of fans stateside.
“Sometimes you feel a special energy in a city, and when I was here (for a World Cup match) in 2003 it was like, ‘Whoa,’ I hadn’t seen much of Portland, but I felt good vibes.’” She said. “It became true. I love Portland.”
Sunday’s game against the Spirit is the final match at home this season for the wildly popular Thorns, who have already been eliminated from the NWSL playoffs. The match is already a sellout with more than 21,000 tickets already sold. The Thorns close out the regular season on the road on Sept. 4 against the Western New York Flash.
The Thorns started a Twitter hashtag #DankeNadine to send her off. The German national team created a video to say goodbye, with members of the team all adopting Angerer’s preferred pulled-back hairstyle.
“There’s great things I love about her as a teammate but also don’t love so much as an opponent,” Thorns teammate and World Cup foe Alex Morgan said. “She’s such a hard opponent to go against, I saw that against them in the World Cup, she denied me a time or two. So I’d much rather have her as a teammate.”
Thorns forward Alex Mogan has both faced Nadine and been her teammate
Angerer, who hopes to someday go into coaching, was looking forward to Sunday — even though it will be bittersweet.
“I think everybody knows how much I like it here,” she said. “I think it will be very emotional.”
