Barbara Dunst (born 25 September 1997) is an Austrian

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 lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for German

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German language, German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. I ...

club

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

and the Austria women's national team. She is a two-time Austrian Women’s Footballer of the Year award winner. Dunst will join

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

for the 2025-26 season.

Career

Club

Dunst began playing football in 2004 at SV Anger, where she played for eight years in the boys' team. In November 2012, she signed with ÖFB-Frauenliga club LUV Graz, for whom she made her debut on 10 November 2012 in a league match against

FC Wacker Innsbruck FC Wacker Innsbruck was an Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol. History The ''Fußball-Club Wacker'' ("Valiant") ''Innsbruck'' was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and o ...

. For the 2014–15 season, she moved to league rivals and reigning cup winners SKN St. Pölten. With St. Pölten, Dunst won the domestic

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

in the 2014–15 campaign and repeated this championship and cup success in the following season. In the

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. ...

, her team reached the Round of 32 in both the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons, being eliminated by

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

and Brøndby respectively. During the second half of the 2016–17 season, Dunst signed a contract with the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

. She debuted for Leverkusen on 19 February 2017 against

FF USV Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German women's football club from Jena, Thuringia. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the highest level of women's football in Germany. Carl Zeiss Jena played regional women's football since 2016–17 but became ...

in a league match which ended 1–1. On 21 June 2017, Dunst left Leverkusen and moved to fellow Frauen-Bundesliga side

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jer ...

. She made 46 appearances in all competitions during her two years at the club. In 2019, Dunst joined Eintracht Frankfurt (then 1. FFC Frankfurt) and established herself as a key player for the team. She helped Frankfurt reach the 2020-21

DFB-Pokal Frauen The DFB-Pokal Frauen is the main national Women's association football, women's football cup competition in Germany, held annually by the German Football Association in knockout format. It was created in 1980, and since 1991 includes Eastern teams ...

final and played 106 minutes of the final, where they lost 1–0 after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian language, Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth-largest city in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony, on the river Aller (Germany), Aller east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the locat ...

. Dunst scored an impressive four goals in 10 matches in the 2023-24 UEFA Women's Champions League (including the qualifying rounds). In total, Dunst has made 147 competitive appearances for Frankfurt and scored 25 goals. On 20 March 2025,

announced the signing of Dunst on a three-year contract, with the midfielder arriving in the summer.

International career

Dunst played for the Austria U17 national team between 2013 and 2014. In 2013, she participated with her team in the

UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, ...

, where Austria was eliminated in the second round. In 2015, Dunst became part of the Austrian U19 team. In 2016, she played

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is an annual competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belon ...

, where Austria was eliminated in the group stage. In October 2015, she was called up to the Austrian senior team for the first time for a European Championship qualifier against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. She made her senior international debut in that qualifier on 25 October. In March 2016, she won the

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in the competitio ...

with her team. In 2017, Dunst was part of the 23-women squad who represented Austria and reached the semi-finals at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship organised by UEFA for the ...

. She was also part of the squad that was called up to the

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champio ...

. In 2023, Dunst's strong performances saw her named the Austrian Women's Footballer of the Year, a prize awarded by Austrian Press Agency DiePresse. She impressively won the award for the second time the following year. In December 2024, Dunst ruptured her cruciate ligament during a Euros qualification play-off tie against Poland and missed several months of football as a result.

International goals

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunst, Barbara 1997 births Living people Austria women's international footballers Austrian women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Bayer 04 Leverkusen (women) players MSV Duisburg (women) players Expatriate women's footballers in Germany SKN St. Pölten (women) players Frauen-Bundesliga players Eintracht Frankfurt (women) players ÖFB Frauen Bundesliga players DFC LUV Graz players Footballers from Graz UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Austrian expatriate women's footballers 21st-century Austrian sportswomen