Maren Meinert (born 5 August 1973) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and former player who played as a

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 ...

and

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. She was most recently the head coach of

Germany women's national under-20 football team The Germany women's national under-20 football team represents the female under-20s of Germany in the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, and is controlled by the German Football Association. History The German U-20 team and Nordic Cup The German U-20 ...

. As a player, Meinert played for German clubs

FCR 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 ...

and

FFC Brauweiler Pulheim FFC Brauweiler Pulheim 2000 was a German Women's association football, women's football club based in Pulheim, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was founded when the women's section of Grün-Weiß Brauweiler in 2000 established its own club. The team pl ...

, as well as Boston Breakers in the United States. She also represented the

Germany women's national football team The Germany women's national football team (german: Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft der Frauen) represents Germany in international women's football. The team is governed by the German Football Association (DFB). The German national team ...

Club career

Meinert was the first player inducted into Boston Breakers' "Pillars of Excellence" during a ceremony held at half-time of the 17 May 2009 game between the Breakers and

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

International career

Meinert played for the German national team between 1991 and 2003, making appearances at three

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 ...

finals and the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. Germany won the 2003 World Cup. She scored the first goal in the final against Sweden.

International goals

Management career

Meinert coached various German youth national teams for the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

(DFB) from 2005 to 2019. In 2018, the DFB asked Meinert to become head coach of the

after dismissing

Steffi Jones Stephanie Ann Jones (born 22 December 1972) is a German-American Association football, football manager and former player who last managed the Germany women's national football team, German women's national team. As a Defender (association footba ...

, but she turned down the opportunity for personal reasons. Less than a year later, the DFB surprisingly chose not to extend Meinert's contract. After her departure from the DFB, Meinert was linked to many high-profile positions, including the head coach position at the Irish national team and the assistant position at the

United States national team The United States national team or Team USA may refer to any of a number of sports team representing the United States in international competitions. Olympic teams Additionally, these teams may compete in other international competitions such as ...

Honours

Playing honours

FC Rumeln-Kaldenhausen * Hallenmasters: 1995 FCR Duisburg *

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the FLYERALARM Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. In 1990 the German Foo ...

runners-up: 1997 *

DFB-Pokal Frauen The DFB-Pokal Frauen is the main national women's football cup competition in Germany, thus the female counterpart to the DFB-Pokal. It was created in 1980, and since 1991 includes Eastern teams as well. The most recent champions are VfL Wolfsburg ...

: 1998 Germany *

** Winners: 2003 ** Runners-up: 1995 *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

bronze medal: 2000 *

UEFA Women's Euro 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 ...

: 1995, 1997, 2001 Individual * Women's United Soccer Association Most Valuable Player: 2003

Managerial honours

Germany *

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 ...

** Winners: 2010, 2014 ** Runners-up: 2012 *

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 ...

: 2006, 2007, 2011 Individual * Felix Coach of the Year: 2010

General honours

* Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia

References

External links

* 1973 births Living people German women's footballers Germany women's international footballers FCR 2001 Duisburg players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany German football managers Footballers from Duisburg Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Olympic medalists in football FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Women's association football midfielders German footballers needing infoboxes UEFA Women's Championship-winning players Boston Breakers (WUSA) players Women's United Soccer Association players {{Germany-Olympic-medalist-stub