Women’s football world championship: Smart Players, on and off the field

Six members of the German women's national football team are not only strong players on the football field, but also in the field of vocational training. Inka Grings, Nadine Angerer, Ariane Hingst, Anja Mittag, Melanie Behringer and Martina Müller have taken up courses at the IST-Institute of Studies, because they want to continue their successful job careers after the World Cup and after their professional careers as football players.

The players agree that it is important to consider further education for the time after an active career as a sportswoman. World and European champion Anja Mittag is well aware of the fact that a professional sports career can be rather short, due to injuries, "Therefore it is very important to start thinking about a future career at an early stage." The 25-year-old continues, "also, there is no harm in using your head for studies from time to time." Anja Mittag has completed the course "Sports Management" at the IST-Institute of Studies.

Her teammate Inka Grings shares her esteem for further education and training. She has been enrolled in the course "Sports and Fitness Training" and is very pleased with the outcome. "As national football team members we share quite a few privileges to fully concentrate on football. But we must be aware that at some point our football career will end, and unfortunately the earnings as a professional player are not sufficient enough for retirement. Life goes on and many sports careers have ended prematurely. My advice for everyone is: start thinking about your future early enough. Many of my friends have enrolled in correspondence courses and none has regretted the experience".