“Knee is not the same anymore”
Ex-captain Maroszan resigns from the DFB-Elf
03/13/2023 12:24 p.m
As at the European Championships, the German soccer players will have to do without Dzsenifer Marozsan at the World Cup. After tearing her cruciate ligament, the playmaker no longer trusts herself to take on the double burden. There is one more international match and then the DFB career of the native Hungarian will end.
The Olympic champion and former captain Dzsenifer Marozsan ends her career in the German national team. The international match on April 11 in Nuremberg against Brazil should be their farewell game, the German Football Association announced. For the former Frankfurter it would be her 112th appearance in the selection. “My serious knee injury in spring 2022 made me realize that retiring from the national team felt right,” said Marozsan.
Born in Hungary, she tore her cruciate ligament in the 2-3 draw in the World Cup qualifier in Serbia last April and missed the European Championships in England. The World Cup from July 20th to August 20th in Australia and New Zealand is no longer an issue for them. “I’m doing well again at the club, but my knee isn’t the same anymore – I have to work a lot so that I can complete all the training sessions and games. I think it would just be too much, then internationals, preparation and all that tournament,” explained Marozsan.
For Joti Chatzialexiou, sporting director for national teams at DFB, Marozsan is “one of the most brilliant footballers to have played for Germany”. She started at 1. FC Saarbrücken in 2007 before moving to 1. FFC Frankfurt in 2009. Since 2016 she has been employed in the first French league at Lyon, where she was loaned to the American partner club OL Reign for six months in 2021.
Captain under Steffi Jones
“I have the utmost respect for Dzsenifer Marozsan’s decision,” said national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. “She is a great personality and an outstanding footballer who has done an incredible amount for German football.”
Marozsan scored 33 goals for the German team. She was European champion in 2013 and won Olympic gold with the DFB women in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She won the Champions League six times and the French championship four times. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 she was named Germany’s footballer of the year.
During Steffi Jones’ tenure as national coach, “Maro” rose to captain the national team in October 2016, and in early 2019 she passed the armband to Alexandra Popp. However, the 2010 U20 World Champion had to struggle with many physical problems over the course of her career. In 2018, for example, she suffered a bilateral pulmonary embolism. Marozsan’s contract with Champions League winners Lyon runs until the end of the season.