Shooting star Gwinn in BILD interview | "Second mainstay? Many men can’t even imagine it!"
Giulia Gwinn (front) has been a Bayern fan since childhood (like her father and uncle). After tearing her cruciate ligament in 2020, Gwinn celebrated her comeback last August at the Women’sCup final in Louisville/Kentucky Photo: picture alliance / foto2press
Giulia Gwinn (22) talks in an interview with BILD about her serious injury (cruciate ligament rupture in the fall of 2020 and 336-day break), role model Joshua Kimmich (26) and the first game of the Bayern women in the Allianz Arena!
IMAGE: Ms. Gwinn, you were out for almost a year after tearing your cruciate ligament. How hard was the way to the comeback?
GIULIA GWINN: "It was the hardest time in my career. I had to learn the simplest things like walking, jogging, riding a bike again. For the most part, I was left to my own devices and had to work hard every day to make sure that I would be able to return to the pitch at some point. Now I’m completely pain-free, thank God. Mentally I’m much stronger now."
IMAGE: At the Champions League clash against Paris Saint-Germain on 22. March you play for the first time in the Allianz Arena. Excited?
GWINN: "A really cool thing! This is not only advertising for women’s soccer, but also another and important signal for the future."
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IMAGE: Why women’s soccer still has such a hard time in Germany?
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GWINN: "For example, 85,000 tickets were sold for the women’s Clasico between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid at Camp Nou. This is a record! In Germany, we are still fighting against what I see as outdated prejudices: Women’s soccer is not that attractive, so many turn away from it. I would like to see even more tolerance and openness. Countries like Spain and England are already further ahead. The people there see soccer in itself and not as two different disciplines. A 100-meter sprinter is not constantly compared with a 100-meter sprinter."
During the international match against Ireland in September 2020, Giulia Gwinn (21 senior internationals) tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. The Bayern player was out for almost a year afterwards Photo: dpa
IMAGE: One issue is also the unequal pay.
GWINN: "For equal pay (Brazil, England, Australia, Norway and New Zealand already implement equal pay for men and women in soccer; Anm. d. Red.) in soccer we are not yet ready in Germany. But that’s not what it’s about for me and most of the other players. It’s more about a level playing field and financially more about convergence, the gap should get smaller. We do just as much as the men, train in exactly the same way. In addition, however, we have to make an effort to study (Gwinn is doing a correspondence course in sports management; ed. d. Red.), training and career under a hat get. I think most men can’t even imagine providing a second leg to stand on in addition to soccer."
BILD: You are the shooting star in women’s soccer with 257,000 followers on Instagram. Why are you so popular??
GWINN: "The 2019 World Cup was the can opener. It all started with my goal against China. I was only 19 at the time and totally caught off guard myself by how it all developed on social media. For a long time it was surreal for me, because I was still the normal girl from Lake Constance. The appreciation and encouragement are nice. I try to take people with me in my everyday life and in my career, and I want to remain authentic."
IMAGE: Your role model is Joshua Kimmich. Why?
GWINN: "This irrepressible will to always want to win, to carry the team along, I find very special. You never see him give up, he always has the greed for more. His ambition is impressive. He used to play my position on top of that. I have also tried to integrate his offensive advances and crosses into my game."
Exciting question for Reif Is Bayern now thinking about Eberl??
IMAGE: How did you see the debate about Kimmich’s non-vaccination?
GWINN: "Divided because he launched "WeKickCorona," an initiative focused on the issue, and then for a while he himself wasn’t sure whether he should get vaccinated. But an uncertainty is also felt by many other people. To then carry out the vaccination discussion almost exclusively on his shoulders, I did not find fair. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty for him. We are all aware that as national players we always have a role model function as well. But we should also be given time to weigh up which path we think is the right one on some issues. Joshua said yes, that in retrospect he would have liked to have made the decision to vaccinate earlier."
IMAGE: Recently, there was a lot of criticism from fans about Bayern’s Qatar sponsorship. Your winter training camp in Doha has now been canceled due to corona. How do you feel about Qatar?
GWINN: "It makes absolute sense that we don’t fly away in the current situation. I have been involved in Doha once so far. We were able to move around relatively freely, were in schools a lot, had training sessions with younger girls. The exchange was very open and it was nice to go ahead as a kind of ambassador of Germany. But our focus was on the soccer field, so we didn’t get as many insights into what life as a woman in Doha is really like, for example. I can understand the discussions about the human rights violations. We also talk about it in the cabin. I am glad that we are now doing the preparation on campus."
Fan favorite Giulia Gwinn Photo: picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com
That’s "GG"
Giulia "Giuli" Gwinn (22) is Germany’s shooting star in women’s soccer! On social media, the right-back even has more followers than one or two male Bayern pros. She had her breakthrough at the 2019 World Cup in France, where she was named best young player. For the 2019/20 season, the native of Friedrichshafen (Ailingen) moved from league rival Freiburg to FC Bayern (contract until 2025), became German champion for the first time there in 2021.