Renate Lingor (born 11 October 1975) is a retired female German international

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 ...

, 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 ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Lingor began her career in 1981 with SV Blankenloch at the age of six, in 1983 she joined the youth team of

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

. Aged 14 she signed with

SC Klinge Seckach SC Klinge Seckach is a German women's football club based in Seckach, Baden-Württemberg. The women's club has played eight seasons in the Bundesliga, but at the end of the 1990s their performance fell off and today Klinge Seckach's first team p ...

where she started her professional career in German Bundesliga. Despite several offers from top German teams she remained there until 1997 when she joined

1. FFC Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt is a German women's association football club based in Frankfurt. Its first team currently plays in the German top flight, Frauen-Bundesliga. From 1998 to 2020, the club was known as 1. FFC Frankfurt. Eintracht have won sev ...

. Lingor's position is in the central midfield. She is well known for her good technique, her ability to read a game and her free kicks. She has retired after the 2007–08 season.

International career

Before her first appearance in the German national team in 1995 Lingor made 19 games for the Under 20 Team. Since then she has been constantly part of the team that won several international titles. Her goal against Sweden at the 2004 Olympics secured the bronze medal for her team. In 2006 Renate Lingor was nominated as FIFA Women's World Player of the Year together with Marta () and

Kristine Lilly Kristine Marie Lilly Heavey (; born July 22, 1971) is an American retired soccer player. She was a member of the United States women's national team for 23 years and is the most-capped football player in the history of the sport (men's or wome ...

(

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

). Lingor announced, that she would retire after the 2008 Olympic Games.

Style of play

Lingor usually played in the number 10 role in midfield behind the forwards, although she was also used in a more attacking role on occasion, or even in a deeper role in front of the defence. In 2007, a ''

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

.com'' profile described her with the following words: "She moves around the pitch with lithe elegance, is technically brilliant and has excellent vision. She can dummy and feint past almost anyone and is lethal from

set pieces "Set Pieces" is the first EP release by Canadian indie band Braids A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. ...

– so much so that she is often compared in her homeland with top

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativit ...

s from the men's game like

Mehmet Scholl Mehmet Tobias Scholl (born Mehmet Tobias Yüksel; 16 October 1970) is a German football manager and former player. He played most of his career as an attacking midfielder for Bayern Munich. During his career he won the UEFA Cup in 1996 (scoring ...

and Thomas Hassler. And with good reason. Lingor, who stands 1.66m (5'5") tall, is as consistently exceptional as her now retired male counterparts." The profile also praised her for creativity and playmaking skills, lauding her as a "master of the defence-splitting pass," while also noting her work-rate, stating: "Lingor is not only a creative outlet just behind the front two but also capable of working in front of the defence to break up opposition play and then launch lightning-quick counter-attacks."

Career statistics

Clubs

* FFC Frankfurt * SC Klinge-Seckach * DFC Eggenstein * Karlsruher SC * SV Blankenloch.

Honours

1. FFC Frankfurt *

UEFA Women's Champions League 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 ...

: Winner 2002, 2006, 2008 *

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 ...

: Winner 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 *

DFB-Pokal 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 ...

: Winner 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008 * DFB-Hallenpokal for women: Winner 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2006, 2007 Germany *

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

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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 ...

, 2005 *

Football at the Summer Olympics Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA Wor ...

: Bronze medal 2000, 2004, 2008 Individual *

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 ...

All star team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lingor, Renate 1975 births Living people German women's footballers Germany women's international footballers 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic footballers of Germany 1. FFC Frankfurt players FIFA Century Club Footballers from Karlsruhe Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics UEFA Women's Championship-winning players Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards