The Comeback Queen: Giulia Gwinn‘s Inspiring Journey to Becoming German Captain

(i can’t use pictures without copyright issues so yeah)

Germany has always been seen as the main powerhouse in European women‘s football. With eight European Championship trophies, two World Cups, and an Olympic Gold medal, it is one of the most successful teams in its field. The Germans revolutionized women‘s football from the late-1990s to the back-end of the 2000s, becoming one of two major powerhouses in world football, only rivaled by the mighty United States during that time period. However, as time went by, many other nations have caught up to the German dominance, especially in Europe, with the Netherlands reaching its peak in 2017, England winning the Euros in 2022, and Spain getting its first trophy at the 2023 World Cup. As such, the impetus is on the DFB-Frauennationalmannschaft to bring the country back to its glory days (especially after a disastrous group stage exit in the last World Cup), and one figure that can be the catalyst for this is none other than newly-elected captain, Giulia Gwinn.

Born on July 2nd, 1999 in Tettnang, a small town just outside of Friedrichshafen, Gwinn started playing football with the local football club at the age of eight. From there, she joined a bigger club in VfB Friedrichshafen by the age of ten, before moving again to FV Ravensburg, where she would play with the boys‘ team for five years. Her constant improvements and latent ability with the ball meant that an even bigger club would come calling eventually, and that club was Bundesliga side SC Freiburg. On September 13th, 2015, she made her Bundesliga debut in a 6-1 victory for the Breisgauer against 1. FC Köln. She came on as a substitute for striker Sandra Starke. Seven games later, she would score her first goal, this time against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on the tenth game week. She represented SC Freiburg for four seasons before leaving for FC Bayern München, who were two-time champions of the Frauen-Bundesliga, at the age of twenty. As of April 2024, she would win two more Bundesliga titles in 2021 and 2023 and has ten goals in 56 games for the club.

“Giuli went to Freiburg, first for the U-17 level. She was really young when she first joined, but showcased her skills to such a level that we realized that we had a promising young talent under our wings. When she was promoted to the senior team, we thought she was this ‘cute little girl’ but in reality, it was a positive surprise that she could already bring so much into the team at such a young age” - Laura Benkarth, Gwinn’s former teammate at SC Freiburg, FC Bayern München, and the German national team, when asked about her in 2019.

Internationally, Gwinn started her career in 2013 for the under-15s before constantly moving up the age groups. In 2016, she would then win the U-17 European Championship in Belarus. The side that won this tournament had current Bayern and national teammates such as Klara Bühl and Sydney Lohmann. One year later, she would debut for the senior national team in a game against France where she was substituted on for Tabea Kemme in the 79th minute. However, her proper international breakthrough would be in the 2019 Women‘s World Cup in France where she scored Germany‘s first goal of the tournament against China. Even though they would exit the tournament in the quarter-finals, Gwinn was nominated as the Young Player of the Tournament of this edition of the World Cup. After this, Gwinn would become a regular in the German side, but the journey has not been a smooth ride.

In 2020, the then-21-year-old suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury (one of the most significant injuries in football) on the right knee, which sidelined her for the rest of the year and most of 2021, which totaled up to 336 days of not playing football. Reflecting on the injury, Gwinn felt that looking back, she learned so much about herself and could take many positives out of the injury, and she „felt both physically and psychologically stronger“, and this new outlook on life led to her playing a crucial role in getting the German team into the finals of the European Championship in England where the team lost in extra-time through a goal from Manchester City winger Chloe Kelly. While Gwinn did not score in the tournament, she provided an assist for Frankfurt defender Sophia Kleinherne in the final group stage game against Finland. Despite the highs of the tournament and her own blossoming career for club and country, she would suffer another ACL injury during training for a friendly match against France in October 2022, just two months after the Euros. This sadly sidelined her for the 2023 World Cup, and looking back, her presence was greatly missed as she instead showcased her media expertise for the ZDF during the tournament.

A second long setback did not hinder her performance, however, and despite a group stage exit in the UEFA Women‘s Champions League, FC Bayern are on course to win their second Bundesliga title in a row, with Gwinn playing seventeen of the eighteen games so far, scoring three goals in the league and providing two assists. With the team only conceding five goals in eighteen games, she is also a stalwart in the defense, forming a formidable backline with the likes of Glodis Viggosdottir, Magdalena Eriksson, and fellow full-back Katharina Naschenweng. On the national side of things, the country is on a course for comeback after their dreadful 2023 antics, and after a victory in the third-place match of the Nations League tournament, the team qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics, and in April, they went two for two in the first matches of the 2025 Euros qualifying matches, coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Austria and a convincing 3-1 win against Iceland. But, these two matches would see something different for the national team.

The absence of longtime captain Alexandra Popp due to injury and the recent retirement of regular vice-captain Svenja Huth meant that the team would be without its regular captains for the European qualifiers, and interim manager Horst Hrubesch made the decision to give the captaincy to Gwinn, who is surprisingly not part of the captaincy team of FC Bayern (Viggosdottir, Sarah Zadrazil, and Georgia Stanway are the members of said captaincy team). But, even from an outsider point of view, there are many aspects where the now 24-year-old can serve as a figurehead of German football for the near and far future.

First of all, just basing on how she overcame the ACL setbacks and still performing at a very high level meant that she has the mentality to continue to succeed despite her struggles. Having one ACL injury is debilitating, let alone two. Another aspect that makes her a prime candidate for permanent captaincy (once Popp retires from international football) is her penchant for taking responsibility in clutch moments. First displayed in the aforementioned goal against China in 2019, Gwinn has proven herself to be a clutch player in crucial moments for the national team, and over the years, she has developed into a penalty specialist for her side, scoring all of the penalties for club and country. Her most recent penalty goal oversaw Germany’s comeback against Austria in the European Championship qualifiers, and there was a clip during the game of her inspiring her teammates to the comeback victory.

But, what seems to be a mainstay in her personality is her level-headedness and humility in aspects outside of football. As of April 2024, Gwinn is the most-followed German women’s player on Instagram with more than six hundred thousand followers, which is nearly twice as many as the next two “most popular” players, Jule Brand (346k) and Lena Oberdorf (345k). This meant that there are more eyes on Gwinn than other players within the German national team camp, but how she handles this latent exposure is commendable, as she downplays her status as a “social media queen” and wants to be known more as a figurehead on the pitch. Sadly for her, however, this label as an influencer is something she has to live with, even though it is not her fault by any stretch of the imagination. By the admission of her own teammates during the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, she was nominated as the “most beautiful” member of the team, which would then stick with her irrespective of her achievements on the pitch. Now, two league titles and a Euros final later, Giulia Gwinn continues to inspire people in Germany, most notably young girls who are trying to get into professional football. This new responsibility might be the catalyst for Germany to reclaim its glory days in the future. When the likes of Popp and Marina Hegering are in the twilight of their international careers, it might be up to Gwinn and the rest of the new generation to keep the German flag flying high.