"You only find this passion once in a lifetime!"

Around 6 am in the morning, Nuremberg. The first rays of sunlight are already peeking through the trees at the St. Leonhard soccer field near the city center. There, where there is usually a hustle and bustle of young people and every game is about nothing less than honor, there is still a yawning emptiness. Only a few joggers and dog owners can be seen who are already on their feet. 

We have an appointment with Jeannette Harttung, a player for the FC Würzburger Kickers women's team in the third-tier Regionalliga Süd. At the age of 18, she is actually only at the beginning of a promising soccer career. Nevertheless, her story already speaks for itself.

And it is representative of so many male and female soccer players on Germany's pitches. We all have them and live through them: dreams, passion, disappointments, perseverance.

Dresden, Nuremberg, Cicker

Born in Dresden, Jeannette moved to Nuremberg with her parents, where she played soccer from an early age. The reason: as a little girl, she watched a game of the German U-20 women's national team on TV with her father. Her conclusion: "Dad, I want that too!"  

A short time later, she laced up her soccer shoes for the first time for a small soccer club in Nuremberg. With the boys. After a year with the "club" girls, she returned to boys' teams. The fact that she was a girl was never an issue.

It was all about soccer.

After the U-17s, it was off to the women's team in Würzburg in the 2nd Bundesliga. At the same time, she was called up to the regional team at an early stage, and from the U14s onwards to the Bavarian team. In the meantime, Jeannette was even part of the extended squad of the junior national team. In the end, however, it was not quite enough to establish herself there in the long term.

"Criticism is a motivation and incentive for me to prove the opposite!"

What was lacking most was athleticism. Jeannette had put her personal training focus on technique and ball-specific aspects of the game and neglected athletics. On the one hand, she had failed to take the initiative and work on her athleticism on her own, and on the other hand, she had never received the appropriate input from outside – coaches and trainers – to work on it.

Fundamentally, her approach to criticism has also changed. What used to be emotional and demotivating is now an incentive for Jeannette to work even harder and prove the critics wrong.