Linda Bresonik (born 7 December 1983) is a German retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. She played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or wing back. She mostly played for Duisburg, and many times for Germany.

Career

Club

Bresonik began her career at the age of five at TuS 84/10 Essen, before moving to Grün-Weiß Schönebeck in 1995. She joined

FCR 2001 Duisburg FCR 2001 Duisburg (full name: ''Fußballclub Rumeln 2001 Duisburg'') was a German women's football club from Duisburg. The first team played in the Bundesliga. They originate from a women's team formed in 1977 under the umbrella of FC Rumeln-Kald ...

in 2000 and made her

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

debut for the club. In the 2004–05 season, Duisburg finished runner-up in the league. After a falling out with the club, Bresonik transferred to Bundesliga side

SC 07 Bad Neuenahr SC 07 Bad Neuenahr was a German football club from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate. The best-known section within the club was its women's football team, which was founded in 1969 and won the German Championship in 1978. ''Sportclu ...

in 2005, but she only appeared in five matches there. One year later she moved to

SG Essen-Schönebeck SGS Essen are a German multi-sports club based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club was founded in 2000 from the merger of ''VfB Borbeck'' and ''SC Grün-Weiß Schönebeck''. It is most renowned for its women's football team, which plays ...

, where she played for two seasons. In 2008, Bresonik returned to FCR 2001 Duisburg. During her second stint at the club, she had her biggest success at club level, winning the

UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

in the 2008–09 season. She also won the

German Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

twice with Duisburg and finished runner-up in the 2009–10 Bundesliga season. Bresonik and Duisburg teammate

Annike Krahn Annike Berit Krahn (born 1 July 1985) is a German former footballer who played as a centre back. Club career Krahn started playing football at the age of four. She played at SV Westfalia Weitmar 09, SV Waldesrand Linden, TuS Harpen and SG Watte ...

joined

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

in July 2012, for a transfer fee described as "rekordverdächtig" (possibly record breaking). In 2015, she joined

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jers ...

, before leaving for

BV Cloppenburg BV Cloppenburg is a German association football club located in Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony. History The club was founded after World War I in 1919 as the successor to SV Cloppenburg 1911. Through the 1950s they played in the Amateurliga Niede ...

in 2017. She announced her retirement on 19 December 2017.

International

Bresonik won the UEFA Women's Under-18 Championship with Germany in 2000. Two years later she came third at the

2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship The 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship was held from 17 August to 1 September. It was the first sanctioned youth tournament for women put together by FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada. FIFA granted the tournament to Canada in March ...

. Bresonik scored in the

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

of the third place play-off. She made her debut for the German senior national team in May 2001 against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Less than two months later, Bresonik won her first major international title at the 2001 European Championship. At the

2003 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September 20 to October 12, 2003, at s ...

, Bresonik suffered a muscle injury in Germany's second group match. She left the team and returned to Germany, and later only received a third of the pre-arranged winning bonus. Bresonik did not play for the national team for almost four years afterwards. She eventually returned to the national team at the Four Nations Tournament in January 2007 and was part of Germany's squad that won the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but th ...

. She started in all of the team's six matches. Alongside

Kerstin Stegemann Kerstin Stegemann (born 29 September 1977) is a German former footballer who played as a defender or midfielder. Career Born in Rheine- Mesum, she made her football debut at age 15 in 1993, playing for FFC Heike Rheine in the Frauen-Bunde ...

and

Ariane Hingst Ariane Hingst (born 25 July 1979) is a German former footballer who works as an analyst for Fox Sports. She was primarily utilized as a defender or a defensive midfielder. Club career Hingst had played at several local clubs at junior level. ...

, Bresonik was part of Germany's defence which did not concede a single goal in the entire tournament. She won the bronze medal at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

and helped Germany in winning the country's seventh title at the 2009 European Championship. Bresonik was part of Germany's

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the even ...

squad.

International goals

Honours

Club

;FCR 2001 Duisburg *

: Winner 2008–09 *

: Runner-up 2004–05, 2009–10 *

: Winner 2008–09, 2009–10, Runner-up 2002–03

International

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

: Winner

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalent ...

: Winner

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

: Bronze medal

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament, organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), for national teams of women under the age of 20. The tournament is held in even-numbere ...

: Third-place 2002 *

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is a competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belong to the ...

: Winner 2000

Individual

Silbernes Lorbeerblatt Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf), the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bresonik, Linda 1983 births Living people 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players Bisexual sportspeople Bisexual women FCR 2001 Duisburg players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Germany women's international footballers German women's footballers German expatriate women's footballers Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic footballers of Germany Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics MSV Duisburg (women) players Paris Saint-Germain Féminine players SC 07 Bad Neuenahr players SGS Essen players Footballers from Essen FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players LGBT association football players German LGBT sportspeople Expatriate women's footballers in France German expatriate sportspeople in France Women's association football midfielders Women's association football defenders Frauen-Bundesliga players UEFA Women's Championship-winning players BV Cloppenburg (women) players Division 1 Féminine players