Kerstin Stegemann (born 29 September 1977) is a German former

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 played as a defender or

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 ...

Career

Born in

Rheine Rheine () is a city in the district of Steinfurt (district), Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base. Geography Rheine is on the river Ems (river), Ems, about north of Münster ...

- Mesum, she made her football debut at age 15 in 1993, playing for

FFC Heike Rheine FFC Heike Rheine was a German women's football club based in Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia. Heike Rheine was the first independent women's football club in Germany. History The club has its origins at the VfB Rheine. They had played on a local ...

in the

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 ...

. Within two years, she made her first appearance for the Germany national team, playing in a 13 April 1995 match against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. She went on to become a mainstay of the national team, playing on Germany's bronze medal-winning squads in the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, as well as their 2003 Women's World Cup championship team. Along with

Birgit Prinz Birgit Prinz (born 25 October 1977) is a German former footballer, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year. In addition to the German national team, Prinz played for 1. FFC Frankfurt in the Frauen ...

and Bettina Wiegmann, she is one of only three German women with more than 150

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, having reached that mark in a 23 November 2006 match against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. She also holds a team record with 61 consecutive international matches played. Stegemann retired in 2009 with 191 international appearances and eight goals to her credit.

Style of play

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, Stegemann has been cited as one of the first overlapping full-backs in women’s football.

Honours

Germany *

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Football at the Summer Olympics Association football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA World Cup tournament). Women's football was added to the offic ...

: bronze medal

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years and one year after the men's UEFA European Championship first held in 1984, is the main competition in women's association football between nationa ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual * FIFA Women's World Cup All Star Team:

International goals

:''Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first.

References

External links

* 1977 births Living people People from Rheine Footballers from Münster (region) German women's footballers Women's association football defenders Women's association football midfielders Germany women's international footballers FIFA Women's Century Club FIFA Women's World Cup–winning players UEFA Women's Championship–winning players Olympic footballers for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics FCR 2001 Duisburg players FFC Heike Rheine players SG Wattenscheid 09 (women) players Frauen-Bundesliga players 20th-century German sportswomen 21st-century German sportswomen {{Germany-Olympic-medalist-stub