Sara Dabritz For SoccerBible Volumes: 'All Power'

Sara Däbritz is a winner in every direction. Success in Germany, silverware in Paris and an Olympic gold medal, too. It’s with a level of adventurous focus that she takes every moment in her stride. You can feel her gratitude and hunger, weighed up in equal measure. What’s more, battling back from injury, finding a new way and reaching the very top with all eyes on more glory, it’s at a perfect time that we sit down with this effervescent, creative character.

Can you tell me when you fell in love with football? Can you remember a moment when it really grabbed you and it had you fixed?

It started quite early. My parents both played football. I was growing up in a football family. At the age of five, I started playing in a football club and I always was in front of our house and there was all those kids playing football. So, I just joined them and one of those guys, brought me to the training in our village to this club and then I started playing football there. Since day one till now, I am in love with the game.

Who were your idols growing up?

My idols were mainly male footballers because the visibility was different then it is to now. From the woman’s game it has been Birgit Prinz because when I was young I remember one game I was watching on TV when the German national team played against Brazil in the World Cup Final. Yeah, and Birgit Prinz was the best female footballer in Germany and that’s why she was one of my idols from the women’s side and from the men’s side it has always been Ballack – that’s also why I like my number 13 because of him. I always admired his playing style. Yeah, they inspired me. 

Football isn’t such a linear game, how would you describe the route your career has gone on?

I guess both inside and outside of football, life has its way with ups and downs. There are those amazing moments when you win trophies that you will never forget. But there’s also obstacles that can defeat you. You have to roll with the positives and negatives and try to find a balance. For me though, you always have to keep pushing. Pushing yourself in times when it’s not going perfectly. For example when you’re injured. That can be lonely. I think there are things that every professional has to overcome.

When I had a major injury, it was tough emotionally but it also helped me grow and develop my personality – it gave me strength in life as well as in my body. So, it’s also those moments where things are not going perfect when you develop the most and then it’s about fight for the highest level you can and aiming to win trophies with your teammates, once you’re back out on the pitch. Once you reach your goals, it’s satisfying but afterwards, you also set new goals because it’s important to keep pushing because you want to become better every day. 

What about that time out? It sounds like you took it in a positive direction but was it a real kind of mental challenge?

For sure it was a real mental challenge – when I got the diagnosis that I tore my ACL, It was shocking. I was so sad because I was like, ‘Oh shit Sara, now it’s at least 6/7/8 months. I don’t know how long exactly it will be.’ And we’re not able to be in control and but then I started to take it. I set myself goals. I had learnt my rehab and this was the process that helped me and I am a really positive person.

So when I accepted it, then I gave everything I had in my rehab, in every training session I had, to become back on the pitch and it was also those small victories you’re having in the rehab; the first run, then the first time on the pitch when you see, ‘Okay, I am getting better and better. I am getting stronger again.’ You see the end of the rehab and honestly like, I was coming home from the rehab and I was always happy because I told my parents, I told my boyfriend, ‘Oh today I did this, I did this and today it’s so much better.’ It started to feel normal again and just the small steps, the small victories that are important in the period where you are injured, that you celebrate those small victories to become closer and closer to your goal to be back on the pitch.

The letters ACL put fear into people, don’t they? It can be such a huge blow in anyone’s career. When you did return to the pitch, did it feel like your outlook had changed so that you now cherish every moment in a different way?

When you are away from football, when football is taken away from you… I love the sport, I love every training. I love every game. Football is my biggest passion. So, obviously when I was back to it, I enjoyed it even more. It’s hard to describe but I just felt really good being back, being with my teammates, feeling all their love again. Yeah, it was a happy moment.

What was it like in Germany for you, watching women’s football as a kid? How has a visibility changed?

When I think back, I remember this game from Brazil against Germany because that was such a huge moment. Other than that, it was hard to see much women’s football. I think nowadays, it’s a little different becausethe women’s game has another level of visibility in comparison to when I was young. I couldn’t watch that many women’s games. So I couldn’t watch Bundesliga. I couldn’t watch like Bayern Munich against Wolfsburg or any other clubs competing. It was only the big tournaments I could see. But even this, made me dreaming to be there as well.

I think right now for kids, it’s even more special or easier to start dreaming and to say, ‘I want to become a professional football player,’ because they can see us on a bigger stage. They can see us playing Champions League games. They can see us playing for the Euros in summer and yeah, for me it’s amazing how women’s football is developing right now, how women’s football is growing and how much visibility is women’s football becoming now. I mean, it still can develop. It still can get better. But right now on the highest level, those Champions League games or the big tournaments, everybody can see it. There’s those platforms where kids can see is competing and that’s amazing.

Do you feel special to be part of that generation that has the eyes on the game that it does?

Yes, 100 percent it’s special to be part of this and to experience this moment as a player, it’s also something wonderful. When we’re playing our Champions League games in the big stadiums; for example when we played against Lyon the big stadium, we set the new record for France. Being part of that is incredible. The atmosphere we are experiencing in a football game, it’s just different when you play those games as a player because you walk on the pitch, you already get goose bumps in the warm-up because the crowd is there. The crowd is pushing you. It’s memories that we are making. It’s a movement happening all over the game – Full stadiums and not only in Paris but also like in Barcelona – 90,000 people watching their games. You can feel it all rising.

How does it feel knowing the next generation can see you and take inspiration from you?

I put my focus on playing football and performing and enjoy the moment. The games I love the most are those at the very highest level. It makes me proud when I think about it and then realise that all those kids, the future generation is able to watch it and that’s exactly the steps young people need. For example, the new Champions League system because it’s giving so much visibility. It’s giving the platforms you need for all the girls or boys who want to play football, want to perform and they can see that it’s possible and they get inspired by it I think and they see they can compete on the highest level, play in front of full crowds and compete on a professional level.

Looking at your career, you’ve taken big steps with each move. To leave Germany and head to France, what has that kind of experience done for you on a personal and a professional level?

First of all, it was a big step for me going abroad. The language and the culture is different. It takes some time to adapt to get into it because it’s completely different to the German culture for example. It has been not easy but it has not been that difficult for me either because the welcome was overwhelming. It was also important when I go to another country, that I want to learn the language as soon as fast as possible. I think it’s important like when you go into another culture, you want to take in the culture – it helps you understand the people better. It helps you feeling better in the country. So, it was a great step and I really enjoyed being in France.

You have come into a team and you are playing with such elite players, did it help raise your game even more and you know, take your talents to the next level?

Definitely – I think I was growing here as a person but also as a football player. Like you said, you are training with some of the best footballers in the world, with international players. In our club there’s players who are the best players around the world. So and you are competing in every training on the highest level and then it’s a different style of football in France too. Learning a new football style has made me a better player but it’s opened my eyes to different approaches to the game. It’s a real education.

When you think of those moments like setting new record attendances, they’re incredible – you have reached fantastic heights on a personal level though – what are the most precious memories that you’ve experienced and created to date?

For me the most special moment or the highlight moment was winning the Olympics with the national team. This was a tournament I will never forget. Winning the gold medal at the Olympics for your country is really really special. But also, winning my first championship with Munich is a moment I will never forget and also winning the championship in Paris. Like, going abroad to another club to another culture. You set yourself goals with your team to win trophies and then when you do, it’s incredible.

What does that do to kind of like reset your ambitions and aspirations? Because like, to think beyond winning an Olympic medal it’s unbelievable. But are you someone like that, that just that sits down and is like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’

Winning those trophies is incredible and are really special moments and it’s important to make sure to enjoy those moments, even like a small time afterwards. I will always have it in my heart and I will always remember those moments. But those moments are also moderating me for the future to set new goals to aim for more, to become better as a player and keep pushing myself. I am an ambitious person and I always try to develop and become better. I think the process of learning is never done. So I just try and always I try to set myself new goals.

What do you think a successful European Championships would do for the country this summer?

I am sure if we play an amazing tournament and be successful in England, it would help to push things forward or to bring even more female girls to start playing football and start dreaming. So yes, it’s our responsibility on the pitch to perform well and to inspire them.

Have you felt that responsibility grow on your personally as you’ve achieved more throughout your career?

I am aware that I am an idol for like young girls or even young boys and I like that role, yes. I also always stay like I am and I am natural. I just want to show them that I enjoy the game. That it’s my biggest passion and that I always give everything. That’s the values I want to show. For me, it’s always important that, yeah that you enjoy the game, that you have fun. That’s how it starts. That’s how it should be and then when you work hard for your goals for your dreams, then everything is possible.

What would you like to see happen to the game in the future? Obviously, we’re in such a good moment now, but there’s always more that can be done and more that can come into it. What goes through your head in terms of you know, how the game should look in the future?

I think right now we are in a really good way and I just hope it keeps going like this. Of course, there’s things that have to get better in terms of conditions, equal conditions in the leagues in general because in the top clubs, you are professional, you have everything you need but it’s more about the clubs in the middle or like the other clubs that need to be brought up to the same standard. We need to get better conditions in terms of training conditions for all clubs.

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