Alexandra Popp, the flight of the butchers daughter

Straight

Alexandra Popp celebrates the second goal of the semi-finals against France.JOHN SIBLEY (REUTERS)

After scoring her first three goals in the European Championship, all headed, one of the congratulatory calls Germany's Alex Popp (Witten, 31) received was from Horst Hrubesch, "the header beast."

One of those tank forwards, tall and blond, who during the seventies and eighties fueled everyone's fear of the German forcefulness.

The 71-year-old had briefly led Popp in the national team and felt the force of nostalgia when he saw his ex-pupil shoot rivals through the air, just like him.

On the way to the final against England (6:00 p.m., La 1), the history of Germany has been the story of Poppi, as he is known in the dressing room, scorer of six goals, four of them headed to the joy of Hrubesch, and tied at the head of the table of

with the British Beth Mead, with whom he will fight this Sunday at Wembley.

Wolfsburg striker and soccer benchmark in his country (119 caps and 59 goals), after several personal hardships, suddenly benefited from a global misfortune like the pandemic.

Two injuries to her had kept her out of continental tournaments in 2013 and 2017, and in early 2021 she broke the cartilage in her right knee.

She, again, would have missed the European Championship if she had not been postponed to 2022 due to covid.

Even so, it took her 11 months to return to the fields and for a time it was not at all clear that she could do it.

So, when she scored the fourth in the debut against Denmark coming off the bench, she couldn't help but kneel down and almost cry.

“I had the feeling that a lot of people had written me off.

To have won that battle, and that's the right word,

against my injuries makes me feel very proud”, he exclaimed.

Three times champion of the Champions, eight times of the German League and Olympic gold in Rio, Popp still had things to do.

He actually attended the appointment with the substitute poster.

A midfielder most recently at Wolfsburg, coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg still sees her as a striker and included her on the list as an alternative to striker Lea Schüller.

The coach knows her well.

She directed her at the beginning of her in Duisburg, where she had to alert him that she had to lose weight.

That was his first level experience.

Until she was 14 years old she always played with boys and then she entered a soccer school in Gelsenkirchen, in the Ruhr mining area, where she is from.

There she began to collect a little money, which she gave home to help the family economy after her parents' butcher shop had to close.

In this European Championship, each game has hit the mark, the first player to score in five games in the history of the tournament.

In the second, against Spain, she came out as the starter and captain taking advantage of Schüller's positive for coronavirus, and in a corner she won the position of Patri Guijarro and put the sentence (2-0) with her 1.73 height.

Her confirmation in England.

No one took her out of eleven and no one has been able to stop this animal lover (she worked in a zoo), with two goals in the semifinals against France.

Perhaps it all comes down to the Chinese character tattoo on his left foot: "Power, hope and strength."

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