Career at breakneck speed: Jule Brand is a Bundesliga player at 17, made his senior national team debut at 18, took part in the European Championship at 19 - and was a starting XI in the semifinals against France. It is also thanks to her that the DFB team can continue to dream of the title.
Jule Brand had no chance against this unbelievable power in a header duel. She was airborne a moment early and then was knocked over by the explosiveness of the player jumping up behind her. The 19-year-old got an arm in his face and fell to the ground. Shortly thereafter, she got up and ran jubilantly in the direction of the corner flag to her teammates.
It was the 2-1 scene in the 76th minute. The player she couldn't stand against was her captain Alexandra Popp. It didn't matter at all that the youngest in the DFB team hadn't got the ball, Popp had done that. And how. It was also a scene that shows how committed Brand played in the semifinals against France. Because only seconds before she could not convert a cross from Svenja Huth, which was blocked by Griedge Mbock Bathy. She tried twice from close to the penalty spot, but at least threw up the French defense. This still had to be sorted out when Huth already brought the next cross from the right into the penalty area. It was the decisive one that Popp converted to 2-1 and thus to victory and entry into the final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday (6 p.m. / ARD, DAZN and in the ntv.de live ticker).
It was not a matter of course that Brand delivered such a successful game. It was the attacker's starting eleven debut, who switched from TSG Hoffenheim to VfL Wolfsburg after the European Championship. To date, she has been a substitute in all four previous games, but has only played around 70 minutes together. The absence of Klara Bühl, who had to stay at the team headquarters in Brentford because of a positive corona test, made it necessary to change the starting eleven. Brand, who national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg describes as a "shooting star" who also has the label "exceptional talent", fitted in on the right wing as if she would do the job in a semi-final against France any day.
"What Jule Brand played," Voss-Tecklenburg praised her and a number of other players and also mentioned that the praise also came from the team, in which each of the others gave their all. "The way Tabea Wasmuth goes to Jule Brand after the game and she says, 'Jule, what you played today is so great', of course my heart melts." And she emphasized: "Jule knew what she had to do, but you can't expect her to do it like that at the age of 19."
In fact, it was hardly noticeable that Bühl, the woman who was awarded the player of the game against Austria, was missing on the flank. It will not be easy for Voss-Tecklenburg to nominate the starting XI for the final if Bühl is actually ready for action. According to UEFA regulations, that would be possible if she tested negative after five days and was symptom-free. The national coach also said: "We'll have to wait and see if she can come back. She has no symptoms. And if she's negative, then she's an issue for us."
But Bühl will not have a free pass. Brand helped out defensively, played disciplined and well with Giulia Gwinn, won her dribbling offensively and caused a stir with her speed and some good passes. She helped prepare the goal to make it 1-0 with her pass from the wing to the edge of the penalty area to Huth, who crossed further inwards, Popp converted.
She will play with both of them from the coming season, VfL Wolfsburg has secured the services of one of the most talented players in Germany. "I was impressed by the performance VfL has put in all season. It's a world-class team."
She leaves TSG Hoffenheim, to which she switched to the juniors in 2018. She quickly played her way into the second team and made her Bundesliga debut in 2020, aged just 17. "Jule Brand is an exceptional talent," said Ralf Zwanziger, head of the TSG girls' and women's football development center, to ARD. "She has had a meteoric rise, shot through the second team with us and quickly became a regular in the first team."
It all happened so quickly that Brand hadn't even signed a professional contract with her club when she heard the Wolfsburg women's wooing. "Everything really happened very quickly. And at Wolfsburg, the overall package was just right for me," Brand explained her move.
Everything runs like clockwork for the native of Rhineland-Palatinate. "It was my childhood dream to become a national player," she recalled at SWR Sport about her dreams and her beginnings in soccer: "With my friends on the soccer field, right after school, just throwing the backpack somewhere - it was a good time . I just loved being on the pitch with friends." Now she has both: A team that sticks together in such a way that she will call at least some of them friends, and the honor of representing Germany. The dream came true last year when she made her debut for the senior national team at the age of 18. She came on as a 60th-minute substitute against Australia - and scored her first international goal just two minutes later.
The hype that it had already triggered in the Bundesliga continued to grow. "It all happened very quickly: nobody knows me for so much more attention," Brand told SWR Sport. "It was difficult for me at first because I didn't know it like that and I put pressure on myself."
In the meantime, she has already played 21 international matches and learned to deal with the attention she also gets on Instagram. The shooting star is a real big one - and maybe Julian Brandt from Borussia Dortmund will also be watching the final of the European Championship. "She seems to be doing really well," he said of his near-namesake at the start of the tournament. "A lot of people around me jokingly ask me how long I've been playing for the women's national team." Jule Brand is simply herself.
