She was recently approached by a police officer at Frankfurt Airport, says Josephina Neumann.

She was the table tennis player, he said;

he had seen her on television.

It is now more common for the girl from Karben in der Wetterau to be recognized by strangers.

Her face is printed in newspapers and she gives interviews on radio programs.

“Josi”, as everyone calls her, is only twelve years old.

The reason for the hype: Josi is considered one of the greatest talents in European table tennis.

In spring she signed a contract with TTC Berlin Eastside.

The club was recently German champion four times in a row and won the Champions League in 2021.

Josi will be the youngest player to have played in the women's Bundesliga.

It is expected to be deployed there later this year.

She thinks that is "super cool."

envy at school

Josi has been playing table tennis since she was four.

At the age of seven she won the Hessian championship title in the U11 age group;

at nine she was traveling around Europe playing tournaments.

At the age of ten she was appointed to the junior national squad of the German Table Tennis Association.

The Hessischer Rundfunk recently broadcast a one-hour documentary about the "super talent Josi".

She is met with envy at school and on internet forums.

What is all this doing to her?

A Thursday in early September, Olympic training center in Frankfurt: Josi is standing at the table with his knees slightly bent and returning the passes from her trainer Tobias Beck.

Two days ago she came back from tournaments in Slovenia and Croatia;

the next day she will fly to Macedonia.

In competitions, the twelve-year-old sometimes competes against adults.

There are hardly any opponents of the same age at her level anywhere in the world.

After training, Josi talks about the moment when her father Sven asked her if she could imagine moving to Berlin: "I thought he was kidding me." Alexander Teichmann, President of Berlin Eastside, explained the commitment as follows: " We want to integrate her into the team relatively early in the hope that she can become a leader in three to eight years."

So far, Josi has played in the second team at TSV Langstadt, also a Bundesliga club.

The expectations there were: 'Play your way up', says Sven Neumann.

In Berlin, she can “develop in peace, without pressure”.

Josi will continue to live with her parents;

in Frankfurt she will also be training with her Berlin teammates, who are traveling specially for this purpose.

According to Tobias Beck, who once promoted the most successful German table tennis player Timo Boll and coached the German women's national team, her path should "at least" lead to the national team.

Josi attends an elite sports school in Frankfurt;

often trains before and after class.

"If we didn't set ourselves any goals, we wouldn't need to make all this effort," says Beck.

A question that, according to Sven Neumann, is often asked: does Josi do all this voluntarily?

She says, "If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't play." She repeats this phrase several times in the conversation;

it seems like she's had to convince a few people that it's actually true.

At school there were sayings that her success was nothing special.

"In the beginning I was angry about it.

At some point I didn't care," says Josi.

Her mother originally didn't want her to play table tennis.

"I don't think she wanted to go through all that again," says Josi.

Cornelia Neumann-Reckziegel once played table tennis herself;

made it to the national team.

Her daughter tried soccer and horseback riding;

in table tennis, however, she felt a "completely different will".

"Maybe I'll lose a lot in the beginning"

Josi says that she would like to become world champion later.

If you want to be successful, you need an “extreme character”, says Tobias Beck.

So far, he has not recognized a will to win like Josi has in any of his protégés.

"She used to be quite a Rumpelstiltskin," he recalls outbursts of anger during games.

Through mental training, she learns to channel emotions differently.

This should also help her in the Bundesliga, which recently started the new season.

"Maybe I'll lose a lot at first," she says, shrugging.

In the clarity of her statements, she resembles a ripped-off professional.

She is a child who prefers to just play table tennis instead of answering questions.

The young player's career is financially supported by the Hessian Table Tennis Association, the German Table Tennis Association and the "Deutsche Sporthilfe" and "Compass" foundations.

According to Sven Neumann, the costs for a season are "in the six-figure range." In order to be able to drive Josi to training, he sometimes starts work at four in the morning, he says.

Is he concerned with the fact that despite all the hardships, his daughter's great career might not work out?

“No!” says Sven Neumann.

"What she is learning now in terms of discipline, flexibility and determination will help her later in all areas of life." Josi does everything to win many more trophies in table tennis.

She has lost count of how many she already has.

She got her very first from her parents.

For ten successfully returned balls.