Scored two goals himself and was involved in the others: Jule Brand shone against RB Leipzig. The VfL Wolfsburg footballer is back in top form after a crisis. This is also due to interim national coach Horst Hrubesch.
She swirls on the pitch, she beams, it bubbles out of her in interviews: the old Jule Brand is back. The footballer who was named Europe’s best U21 player, the “Golden Girl”, in 2022. The player who is still one of the greatest talents in Germany – and a long-established national player. In VfL Wolfsburg’s commanding 4-0 win in the Bundesliga against newly promoted RB Leipzig, she scored two goals and was involved in the other two.
“Something like that is always good,” said Brand: “It was just a lot of fun playing soccer with the girls.” Coach Tommy Stroot praised her performance: “She’s in a flow, and I wholeheartedly begrudge her that because I know how hard she works.” As a thank you, he left her on the pitch for 90 minutes; she was last allowed to play an entire game in mid-November. Last week, Brand had already scored a goal in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup against her former club TSG Hoffenheim (3-0). “Jule plays with a lot of conviction. We had spoken to her that she can be enormously valuable to us against the ball and that she has to confirm that. And she is currently managing to confirm that again and again,” said Stroot. Kicker”.
Harsh criticism from our own club
It is Brand’s belated playful response to the harsh criticism that her own women’s football director at VfL Wolfsburg, Ralf Kellermann, expressed in November: “Jule has no consistency in her performances, keeps hinting at her potential, but has not yet found a way “To reliably bring this potential onto the pitch,” he told the “Kicker”. And criticizes: “If Jule wants to become a top player, she has to work hard on herself and live 100 percent for football.”
In 2022 she moved from Hoffenheim to Lower Saxony. Kellermann was happy about the transfer after the successful European Championship, in which the DFB team became runner-up: He had spoken of one of the “most sought-after talents” and “individual offensive qualities”, VfL was able to sign her thanks to a clause. But she has not yet managed to become the undisputed regular player.
Not even at the DFB – but in the decisive game in the Olympic qualification against the Netherlands (2-0) she was allowed to play the entire game. A boost for self-confidence from interim national coach Horst Hrubesch. “The nation was very good for me,” said Brand. “Horst and Nöre (DFB assistant coach Thomas Nörenberg, editor’s note) have given me back my self-confidence, I’m playing with conviction again, the self-confidence is simply there again.” According to the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine” she explained: “My style of play is a little more risky. Self-confidence and conviction are very important.” She is a mental person, “but in the end I managed to switch that off.”
Great expectations
Kellermann’s criticism certainly didn’t make her think less over the turn of the year. “When I started in the Bundesliga at Hoffenheim at the age of 17, no one knew me, I played completely freely, didn’t think much about it, and had fun going to every training session,” Brand told the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine” in February. “Then things went uphill quickly, a lot came at me – until this Golden Girl thing.” Afterwards she “realized that I had something to lose – and that there were expectations of me.” She is popular with fans, has 333,000 followers on Instagram, is a sought-after advertising face, and as team manager of the “Las Ligas Ladies” she also works in the Baller League.
Together with Hrubesch, she has now achieved a personal new start. She can now say in a relaxed manner: “Ups and downs are part of it.” Against Leipzig she even missed other good chances to score. Looking at her missed opportunity to make it 3-0 after a cross pass from Alexandra Popp, she says self-critically: “I have to do it.” One more goal wouldn’t have changed the Bundesliga standings. FC Bayern is still one point ahead and is in first place. The Munich team presented the 15th matchday with a 2-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. According to Brand’s own statement, he only turned on the television in the final phase – just at the moment when her national team colleague Lea Schüller headed the decision with a 2-1 win. “Then I immediately switched it off again…” says Brand.
She is still confident: “We still have everything in our own hands.” The probably decisive showdown will take place in eleven days, when VfL will host Bayern. In the first half of the season, Munich won the duel 2-1. Immediately afterwards, Brand goes back to her motivator Hrubesch, the European Championship qualifiers against Austria (April 5th) and Iceland (April 9th) are coming up. After the Olympic Games, the 72-year-old veteran will leave the team; Christian Wück has been appointed as his successor since last week. “I can’t say much about him,” said Brand, according to “Wolfsburger Allgemeine”, which followed the U17 World Cup title on TV, “but at least he looks likeable.”