Germany women's team keeper Berger not thinking about retirement

Yahoo

16-07-2025

Germany's goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger arrives at a press conference for the team ahead of the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 quarter-final soccer match against France. Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
Veteran goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger is not thinking about ending her career with the Germany women's national team after this summer's Euro 2025 in Switzerland.
"I'm not looking so far into the future. I'm someone who lives here and now," she said in a news conference on Wednesday ahead of the Euro 2025 quarter-finals.
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Germany will face France on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals.
Berger, 34, said that being number one in a tournament such as the Euros is a "very, very beautiful feeling."
"If someone had asked me three or four years ago if that would happen, I would have called them crazy," she added.
Berger has survived thyroid cancer. She was first diagnosed with the disease in 2017 and underwent surgery. During Euro 2022, when she was a back-up keeper, Berger learned that the cancer was back, but kept it to herself at that time.
She told reporters that her 92-year-old grandfather wants to come to a game, but only for the final.
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"He said the quarter-finals and semi-finals aren't worth it. If he does it, he'll come to the final," she said.
"He's really serious. He's actually only coming to the final. I tried to persuade him, but he's a tough nut to crack."
She now has her own motivation to go far and "simply make him proud.".
"My grandfather was always a very, very strict but kind man. I usually get either a thumbs up or a thumbs down from him."
Her grandfather was in the stadium for the opening match against Poland, which Germany won 2-0 - and Berger got a "thumbs up."