Photo by Asif Burhan
Growing up in the small town of Dingden, Corina Schröder could have never imagined she could have been speaking, in English, as an inspiration, a role model to women who attended Kick It Out’s Raise Your Game conference and hung on her every word.
Looking over a career which has brought her two German, two English and two European titles as well as a German Cup, Schröder is disbelieving. “My dream was never, ever to play (at that level), obviously it’s a dream of everyone, but I never had it in my mind”.
“I came to football because my mum played football, my dad and my older brother, so on the weekend we all came together. I support Schalke because my dad and older brother supported Schalke, I had to support Schalke. I liked Olaf Thön, because he played for Schalke”
At 15 she joined the newly independent Frauen Bundesliga side FCR 2001 Duisburg or Die Löwinnen (Lionesses), where she joined another north-west native, the legendary Inka Grings, who had already played for Germany at a World Cup and the Sydney Olympics.
“Inka Grings helped me a lot. In my career, I played as a forward, then left midfield and then at Duisburg in the youth team they told me left-back is your position now. I was like ‘Hmmm, I don’t want to play there’. I didn’t know how to play that position but then they talked me through it and I played my first game in the Bundesliga, I was 16 years old, in that position”
In 2009, Schröder won the DFB Pokal (German Cup) and the UEFA Women’s Cup but decided to leave the Ruhr to play for Turbine Potsdam, close to Berlin. “I had played there for eight years, I had a lot of friends there,” Schröder reflected.
In 2010, she lost to her old club in the semi-finals of the Pokal but beat them on penalties after two semi-final legs of the newly-named UEFA Women’s Champions League, eventually winning the trophy in Getafe.
“It’s always not nice to play against your old team but you always want to tell them, ‘look, I went to a better club’”. With Schröder, Potsdam won the Bundesliga in 2010 and 2011 and as Duisburg fell away into insolvency, Potsdam reached another Champions League final; but have now fallen behind themselves in Germany due to the financial investment at VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern.
Schröder moved again to further her career in 2013, taking an ever bigger chance by joining a club trying to eclipse their city rivals in a new league. Liverpool Ladies had finished bottom of the FA WSL in 2011 and 2012 and it was to prove a baptism of fire.
“We played against Everton in my first game, in my first three situations I was playing on the ground, I think she fouled me but the referee didn’t give it.”
The signings of Schröder plus England’s Fara Williams and Natasha Dowie from Everton propelled Liverpool to the next two English titles but all of them have now moved on as Chelsea and Manchester City have moved ahead on the domestic front.
Another first for Schröder was when she became Birmingham City Ladies’ first-ever foreign player earlier this year. Injury has given her time to pursue her degree in Economics. Her team-mate, Kerys Harrop who spoke alongside her at Raise Your Game, is a lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton and stressed to the mentees that ‘education is very important for women in football’.
Kick It Out’s Education and Development Manager, and Raise Your Game organiser, Troy Townsend thanked them for coming and added “There are so many opportunities beyond the pitch, and we keep on stressing that message to people wanting to work in the industry, but Corina and Kerys telling their own story adds a lot, especially as they combine playing alongside studying and working.”
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