It happens that Sjoeke Nüsken uses inline skates to (training) work at Frankfurter Eintracht.
In general, a lot has gotten rolling in her football career over the past few months.
“It was an intense and successful time in which I was able to experience a lot.
I really enjoyed the time and, of course, got the desire for more, ”says the busy woman at the age of 20.
Sjoeke Nüssken has been in constant use since the beginning of the season: she played the Bundesliga season with the SGE, completed all DFB Cup rounds up to the finals, took part in courses for the senior national team and made her first four international matches. To do this, she studies civil engineering in Wiesbaden. After the last international match of the year on Tuesday (3 p.m. on ZDF) in Offenbach against Chile, you can be ready for a vacation. However, Sjoeke Nüssken does not have too much time to relax because, as a member of the Bundeswehr's sports promotion group, she is due for four-week basic training in July.
In terms of football, however, this season was more of a crash course for them.
Namely, from a highly talented young talent who already had a few injury concerns at a young age and first had to find her (regular) place in the Eintracht team, to the almost irreplaceable midfield engine in the club and to a player that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is big on Holds pieces.
"She is smart, physically robust and makes a lot of right decisions," says the national coach and had no worries about giving Sjoeke Nüssken a 90-minute place in the central defensive midfield against a top opponent like France.
A four-person Frankfurt block
In the 1-0 defeat in the match in Strasbourg last Thursday, goalkeeper Merle Frohms was a second Eintracht player in action for the full duration of the game. The 26-year-old was surprised by a long-range shot, but also destroyed great French chances with strong reflexes.
The fact that the national team has a strong four-man Frankfurt block again is an achievement of this season. Central defender Sophia Kleinherne and attacker Laura Freilang will most likely be part of the starting line-up at the end of the season and “home game” on the Bieberer Berg. Because of the currently low incidence value in Offenbach, up to 1000 spectators are allowed in the stadium against Chile. The DFB issues the cards free of charge to “clubs, fans and systemically relevant people”, as the association announced. On this occasion, the German women's selection will wear the men's black EM jerseys in the afternoon - as a signal to their male colleagues, who will start their tournament seven hours later in the evening.
In any case, Sjoeke Nüssken has not had enough of her first year of international play.
The native Westphalian hopes at least for a short stint against the South American world number thirty-seventh, also because after a long time there will be family members in the stadium again.
"I think that my game has become more mature and grown up," says Sjoeke Nüssken, who played with boys in her Westphalian homeland with special permission until she was a junior.
“That also shaped me physically and mentally, hardened me, so to speak,” she says.
She recently gave a special taste of her development in the lost cup final with the unity against VfL Wolfsburg.
With her calm on the ball as well as overview and skill in the duels, she gave her team support in the headquarters.
The 20-year-old says that she felt the defeat a few seconds before the end of extra time as "infinitely bitter", but was satisfied with her own performance. “In the future I want to lead the team and grow into this role more and more. Ultimately, however, it is like always in life: there is still room for improvement, ”says the redhead, who can also wear down opponents with his running strength. Especially since she also engages in the offensive game, likes to pursue her passes in depth and thus comes to a conclusion herself again and again. For Eintracht, she scored seven goals in her first 39 Bundesliga games, and she was also successful once for the German selection.
With Lena Oberdorf from Wolfsburg, Sjoeke Nüsken is currently the youngest national player in Martina Voss-Tecklenburg's squad. “Go full throttle again” is Sjoeke Nüsken's motto for the last women's soccer match with German participation this year. The DFB selection is not qualified for the Olympic game in Tokyo. So Sjoeke Nüssken, the busy worker, can at least tick off her Bundeswehr training in the summer. And then? "I hope", she says, "that there will be a lot to come again."