Nia Künzer

18 January 1980, Mochudi (Botswana)
Defender

Clubs as a player:
1997–2008 1. FFC Frankfurt

Honours:
German Champion: 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008
DFB Cup winner: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008
UEFA Women’s Cup winner: 2002, 2006, 2008

National team:
34 matches (2 goals)
World Champion: 2003

It is one of the most memorable moments in German football history: Extra time in the final of the 2003 Women’s World Cup, Home Depot Centre, Carson, USA – with the score at 1–1, Germany’s midfield playmaker Renate Lingor takes a free-kick into Sweden’s penalty area in the 98th minute. There, Nia Künzer rises to meet the ball and powers it into the opposition’s net with her forehead. 2–1, a golden goal, the winner! Twenty-one years after its formation, the German women’s national team won the World Cup title for the first time, and the goalscorer went down in history with her strike, which was later voted Goal of the Year.

However, reducing Nia Künzer to this one goal would not do justice to her successful career. She made her debut for the national team at the age of just 17. During her ten years with top-flight club 1. FFC Frankfurt, the goal-scoring defender played a part in winning seven German league titles and just as many DFB Cup victories – despite serious setbacks. She suffered a total of four cruciate ligament tears, yet fought her way back time and again. Following a series of subsequent injuries, she was forced to retire from competitive sport in 2008. Since then, as a television pundit, she has been following the development of women’s football – a sport she has played a key role in shaping – with a high level of expertise and a confident yet approachable manner.

The German Football Hall of Fame was established on the initiative of the German Football Museum. In November 2018 and January 2019, leading sports journalists voted to select the inaugural men’s and women’s teams. The jury members were asked to nominate their choice of players and managers from German men’s and women’s football. Players who were eligible to play for German national teams and whose playing careers had ended at least five years previously were eligible for nomination. The HALL OF FAME honours the greatest legends of German football in one central location for the first time. It forms part of the permanent exhibition at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. Opened on 1 April 2019, it has become a permanent place of pilgrimage for all football fans. The jury decides annually on further inductees from men’s and women’s football.