Lina Magull scored two goals for the DFB team at this European Football Championship. She even had to sit out a game because of her thigh. The 27-year-old confirms that she is happy with the goals, but the team is more important to her. And she doesn’t just make that clear on the pitch.
“I don’t ask him too much anymore, I just leave him alone now.” Lina Magull does not mean a trainer or supervisor, but her thigh. She was already at odds with him at this European Football Championship in England, so she sat out the third group game against Finland. The midfielder suffered from muscular problems from the start of the tournament. “I hope he keeps going.”
In the case of the male colleagues, the body part would certainly go through as the “thigh of the nation”, after all, she was named “player of the game” in the opening game against Denmark and scored the first German tournament goal. National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg then praised: “Before the game I told her there was a moment today and it would be a big one and that was it. But she also played so fantastically.” Despite her problems, Magull remains calm and prefers to thank the medical department. Sometimes muscular problems are “not so tangible”, but things have already gotten really good.
Against Austria in the quarter-finals (2-0) she didn’t let herself be bothered and scored the 1-0 for Germany for the second time after the Denmark game (4-0). “Personally, it’s a great feeling to score goals,” said Magull. “But it’s always about how it’s prepared and that’s why I’m very proud of how we approached the games, how we finished it. It doesn’t matter that it was me in the end,” knows the captain of the FC Bayern for the goal against Austria on Klara Bühl’s “will to assert herself” as a preparer and the “cleverness” of Alexandra Popp, who had the presence of mind to let the ball through.
It is this team spirit that distinguishes the DFB team. The common strong will, the mutual drive, the joy of playing. All of this meant that the team has progressed beyond a quarter-finals for the first time since winning the Olympics in 2016 – and can continue to dream of the title. In the semi-finals (July 27, 9 p.m. in the ntv.de live ticker), which will take place again in Milton Keynes after the second group game against Spain, France is waiting – always one of the favorites for years, but now actually victorious in a tournament in the quarter-finals for the first time.
The French have two days less rest after their game against the defending champions Netherlands and also played more than 120 minutes. A disadvantage? Magull, who has played for the senior team since 2015, doesn’t necessarily believe in it. “Of course you can think now that that’s an advantage. Two more days are definitely good for your head and legs,” she says. “But I don’t think that will be so important now. France are in a semi-final for the first time, they will pull themselves together and do everything they can.”
Magull and Co. do that too – the unconditional will can be felt and clearly seen in the games. The midfield harmonises very well, the main formation with Magull, Sara Däbritz and Lena Oberdorf is well adjusted to each other – and has clear tasks, as the headquarters of the German team explains: “Defensively, I’m focused on the opposing six. We should always be good assign, centrally one-to-one,” she said of the tactics after the quarter-final victory. “Offensively, I’m the more offensive part, Obi (Oberdorf, editor’s note) is more defensive, Sara always switches, sometimes more defensively, sometimes more offensively, depending on where space arises.”
Magull has been playing with Däbritz for a long time, both for the DFB and earlier for joint teams. With goalkeeper Merle Frohms, right-back Felicitas Rauch and her position colleague Linda Dallman, they won the U20 World Cup in 2014. The following year, the 27-year-old made her debut with the A-Elf and scored two goals in her second international match against Turkey in the European Championship qualifier. At the 2017 European Championships, she played in all four games before the team was eliminated by the eventual runners-up from Denmark. 63 games and 21 goals are now in the DFB statistics for them.
Unlike Däbritz and Popp, Magull did not take part in the Olympic victory in 2016, so she is still missing a title with the national team. It’s different at club level. With Bayern, to which she switched from SC Freiburg in 2018, she was German champion in 2021. She also won this title in 2013 and 2014 with VfL Wolfsburg and was there during the club’s most successful period – in 2013 there was the treble with the cup and Champions League, in 2014 the Champions League and in 2015 the cup again.
Over the years she has not only gained success, but also self-confidence. While she sometimes comes across as reluctant to be in the spotlight, internally she has a reputation for being a joker. Teammate Kathi Hendrich, for example, reported in April about a present for her 30th birthday, which she celebrated with the national team: “Lina Magull is always up for a joke. She put an inflatable walker in front of my door.”
And the Bayern captain knows when to use her voice, she knows the circumstances in her sport – and calls for changes. “We should earn so well from the 2nd league that nobody has to work part-time anymore,” Magull demanded in the “Bild” newspaper immediately before the start of the European Championship: “We’re talking about a minimum salary of 2,000 or 3,000 euros a month . This is how you can sustainably advance the development of women’s football.”
Of course, no player has taken care of it, the midfielder has also made provisions for the future – and in many ways. She is a trained office clerk, has already worked in an advertising agency and is a certified nutritionist. As if that weren’t enough, she is currently studying sports marketing and sports journalism. She “doesn’t need 10 or 20 million euros a year,” said Magull, but “our salaries should rise so that everyone – not just the national players – can practice their sport professionally.”
The DFB team is professional, the team behind the team is just as well positioned in this tournament as the men. It pays off, but getting into the semi-finals is only the minimum goal. The next win is against France, preferably back to zero. If the nation’s thighs remain silent then, Magull will have nothing to complain about.
