Football queen Silvia Neid
As successful as the “Kaiser”, the DFB didn’t care about him for a long time
May 2, 2024, 10:28 a.m
Participated in all eight European Championship titles for the DFB women, twice world champion and also Olympic champion: Silvia Neid has won everything in football. In retrospect, she describes the fact that women in Germany are so successful so early on as a curse. Because despite this – or precisely because of this – they remain in the shadows for a long time.
Silvia Neid has won so many titles as a player and coach that when she recently moved to Wilnsdorf near Siegen, she had to sort through all the trophies and certificates. The most important ones – a copy of the 2007 World Cup trophy, the 2016 Olympic gold medal and the FIFA World Coach of the Year awards – now decorate her office. “I put everything else in the attic. There are now about five boxes of football stuff up there,” says the former national coach. Now Neid is 60 years old.
Your collection of titles at the German Football Association is unique; only Franz Beckenbauer, who died in January, was one step ahead of Neid: the Kaiser was a world champion as a player and as a coach. Neid won the World Cup as Tina Theune’s assistant (2003) and as head coach (2007), triumphed at the Summer Games in Rio, was three times European champion as a player and five times as a DFB coach. As a player, she was denied the World Cup title: in 1995, she and the German footballers lost 2-0 in the Norway selection final.
Of course, no one knows better than envy that the association has let its footballers, who have been successful for many years, run on the side. She speaks essentially of the curse of the good deed: faster development was certainly possible. “But I don’t think people noticed it that way back then because we still won everything, almost every title. There was no need to change anything – from the DFB’s point of view under all the presidents I’ve experienced. “
“Very fast game”
Envy and Prince: Two pioneers.
(Photo: picture alliance / firo Sportphoto)
In addition to the titles, football gave her “a lot”: “A lot of people that you met. A lot of countries that you traveled to. A lot of friendships that I made during that time and still have.” Neid has been a face of German women’s football for decades. In the first international match in DFB history in 1982, the then player from SC Klinge Seckach, who later became German champions and cup winners with SSG 09 Bergisch-Gladbach and TSV Siegen, was substituted on.
Neid often drove forward and followed the development of her sport with impatience and persistence and, ultimately, with some astonishment. “There is a total interest – I think that’s great and it’s about time,” says the 111-time international player. “In terms of sport, a lot has happened in the last four or five years in terms of dynamics and speed and, above all, technical skills. It’s become a very fast game.”
The infamous coffee service
As a selection player, Neid once worked full-time in the flower wholesale business and wrote her own training plans. She belongs to the generation that received a coffee service as a bonus from the association for their first European Championship title in 1989. Today, the former national coach (2005 to 2016) heads the trend scouting department at the DFB and works with the coaches. Now, says Neid, women’s football is a “top priority” at the association, extends across all departments throughout the entire house in Frankfurt/Main and has reached the highest level. “It would be unimaginable if we had already had this kind of personnel power back then.”
In terms of sport, the DFB women have had to put up with a lot in international comparison after Neid’s era. Despite the World Cup debacle in Australia in 2023 under head coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg and the recent fluctuations under interim coach Horst Hrubesch, Neid believes the footballers can win a medal at the Olympics in Paris. “I think – but I also said this last year before the World Cup in Australia – that our team has so much quality that it can be at the top. And I still say that now.”
Neid points out that only twelve teams are competing in Paris. “Sweden, England and the Netherlands are missing, they are really good teams,” she explains. “I’ve watched the USA, Brazil and Australia, and in my opinion they’re all not in top shape yet, but these are snapshots.” World champion Spain is definitely “top”.
Neid, who was born in Walldürn (Neckar-Odenwald district), also has confidence in Christian Wück, who will succeed Hrubesch after the Olympics. The U17 men’s world champion coach has not yet worked in the women’s field, but she is convinced: “He will do well. Football is football.”
Wück and his future assistant Maren Meinert are the right people “to further develop the team tactically. You simply need a signature for the future – and I think we’ll get that with this coaching team.”