ÖFB ace Georgieva:
The team boss? “I can’t wait to see how it works out with him!”
For a long time, things were almost all on the up for her and her teammates with Austria's women's national team - but now "the Werkl" is on strike and Fiorentina legionnaire Marina Georgieva and Co. are struggling with inconsistent performances and a missed European Championship qualifier. In the second part of the sportkrone.at interview, the team defender reflects on the crisis in the women's team, the change of coach from Irene Fuhrmann to Alexander Schriebl and, among other things, the differences in pay between male and female footballers ...
krone.at: Marina, your engagement with Paris St. Germain in France was actually supposed to last two seasons - why did your professional relationship end after just one year?
Marina Georgieva: I really enjoyed being in Paris and it was great fun. I wouldn't have avoided the competition either, I consciously wanted to. However, we had our differences with the coach - I think several players who didn't speak French and were foreigners had problems with this coach ...
krone.at: Who, I believe, is no longer in office ...
Georgieva: Who has been sacked, yes. Sometimes you want competition and don't want to avoid it, but you don't have a fair chance ....
krone.at: Sometimes it doesn't make sense ...
Georgieva: Exactly! At the same time, you have to say that Fiorentina showed a lot of interest. I took a look at the infrastructure and I was so impressed by everything that it convinced me and I knew: "Okay, that's the next step, that's where I want to go!" They wanted me and I wanted to come here - that worked out really well.
"They wanted me and I wanted to come here - that worked out great!"
Marina Georgieva
krone.at: His last contract at PSG is said to have earned Mbappé a salary of around 72 million euros per year or 6 million euros per month or around 200,000 euros per day - how rich did you get in Paris?
Georgieva: Unfortunately I'm not allowed to talk about that, but I'm nowhere near as rich as he is ... (laughs)
krone.at: That brings me to players who play or have played for PSG: Kylian Mbappé for the men and Marie-Antoinette Katoto for the women, the latter earning less than half a million euros a year. Was her work as a player for PSG's women's team really only worth a 150th of what Mbappé was worth to PSG?
Georgieva: It's always difficult to really evaluate what you've achieved in terms of salary or money. Of course, you'd like it to be adjusted a little. I'm not saying that we should earn as much as the men - and I'm not saying that they should earn as much as we do.
krone.at: It's still always a question of supply and demand ...
Georgieva: Exactly! Even if you wanted "equal pay", it simply wouldn't work because the interest is completely different. That's why it's simply difficult to talk about this topic. I just wish that female players, which is unfortunately still the case today, didn't have to go to work as well as playing soccer or have to worry about doing something else to get money from somewhere. Many female players have to take care of their own food and other things they need, which men get for free or as a gift, for example. So the ones who need it don't have it, and the ones who don't need it get it ...
krone.at: They still get it thrown at them in the end ...
Georgieva: Exactly!
krone.at: While Monsieur Mbappé won't have a chance to spend his money wisely for the rest of his life, you probably won't be able to simply put your feet up after your active career as a footballer. What are your future career plans?
Georgieva: I definitely want to play soccer until my body can't take it anymore ... (laughs)... And then, of course, as a woman you don't have enough money in most cases. That's why I'm studying sports management on the side and would also like to work in that direction.
"I definitely want to play soccer until my body can't take it anymore!"
Marina Georgieva
krone.at: A career as a second-chance musician is not an option for you? It is said that you were - or still are - very talented musically ...
Georgieva: Well, I'm the group DJ ... (laughs)... the team DJ in all the teams. I also played the piano, for six years, but I don't think that would be the right path for me ... (laughs)... And unfortunately I can't sing ...
krone.at: Apart from the fact that at 27 you're in your prime as a footballer, so the end of your career is still a long way off, is there anything else Marina Georgieva would really like to experience in soccer?
Georgieva: I'm open to everything that the footballing path still has to offer. The one thing I definitely want to achieve is a World Cup! That's my personal dream. And to win as many titles as possible. I think every female footballer has that goal, but I would be delighted to hold a trophy in my hand again.
krone.at: With Sarah Puntigam, Sarah Zadrazil, Laura Feiersinger, Verena Hanshaw and Virginia Kirchberger, five of the six ÖFB record players are largely still mainstays in the national team. Remarkable, as they have all passed the age of 30, but also worrying, as none of the younger players have been able to play them out of the team. Do we have a problem with the generation change in Austria?
Georgieva: I wouldn't know how to answer that question. Ultimately, it's up to the coach how he feels about it. The players are fit. From that point of view, I think it's more of a coaching decision ...
krone.at: So you have the feeling that there are enough younger players stepping up to take over?
Georgieva: Definitely! They are definitely pushing up, they are there, they train well, they do their job very well. So I don't think we would have a problem with the next generation.
"It's easier to change the coach than to change the whole team!"
Marina Georgieva
krone.at: After your exit in the play-off of the European Championship qualifiers, it had been foreshadowed and by Christmas the time had come: Team manager Irene Fuhrmann and the women's team are going their separate ways. An understandable step?
Georgieva : Understandable in the sense that we obviously didn't perform well over a certain period of time. But what I have to mention is how well we performed for a long time - and that was with this team manager. She has also developed us a great deal in many areas, you simply mustn't forget that! But yes, things just haven't worked out recently. That's not just her fault, it's also our fault. I think it's easier to change the coach than to change the whole team.
krone.at: That's easier, yes ...
Georgieva: From that point of view, yes, it was somehow understandable. I think we're now looking forward to the new momentum.
krone.at: Is that exactly perhaps not unimportant in general, a new momentum like that? Irene Fuhrmann has been with the ÖFB since 2008, first as assistant coach under Ernst Weber, then in the U19s, then assistant coach under Dominik Thalhammer and head coach herself since 2020. Will that perhaps wear off at some point?
Georgieva: I don't know if it has worn off. I can only say that our performance in the last year and a half simply hasn't been that good. I can't say exactly what it was. I can only say that we have performed very well with her, she has helped us a lot. Personally, I'm very happy with what I've learned under her. But perhaps we needed a new impetus as a team and I think that's what has happened now.
"You can't talk about a slip-up now!"
Marina Georgieva
krone.at: You were there when Austria reached the semi-finals of the 2017 European Championship and the quarter-finals of the 2022 European Championship, and the 2023 season was also very respectable, finishing second behind France in the Nations League. What do you think has happened since then? Can you dismiss a whole year as a slip-up or do you see deeper problems?
Georgieva: That's a question we often ask ourselves. It's not as if we think: "Never mind, that's the way it is now." We players often sit together and ask ourselves: "What's the problem, what can we do differently?" We really try. It just didn't work out. You can't talk about a slip-up now, because it's simply been a longer period. Yes, somewhere, somehow the air has gone out. As I said, we don't know exactly why. But now it's our job to change that. And that's why we're simply hoping that things might change with the new momentum ...
krone.at: After a few weeks of guesswork, the time has finally come these days, the ÖFB has announced the new sporting leadership of the women's national team: After national coach Irene Fuhrmann, there is once again a national coach, and he goes by the name of Alexander Schriebl. What do you think of your new team manager?
Georgieva: Well, I don't know him personally. Of course, in women's soccer you always know someone who knows someone - so I've heard very positive things about him. I've heard that he's a very approachable guy who has his philosophy of the game and wants to drive it. Accordingly, I'm very confident and very, very excited to see how things turn out with him.
"I've heard that he's a very approachable guy ..."
Marina Georgieva
krone.at: What's past is past and can't be changed - what your teammates and you can very much influence is the future, which for you this year brings a new edition of the Nations League. What are the indications that you will be able to show a different face to your 2024 side against Scotland, Germany and the Netherlands?
Georgieva: First of all, it's important to note that we're in Group A, the strongest group with the strongest opponents. So we can expect some very tough games. I think we have to reflect a lot, analyze a lot and simply prepare as well as possible to get through these games.
krone.at: You can hardly embarrass yourselves - you've only lost against Germany and Scotland so far and only have one win and a draw against the Netherlands in your statistics. You can actually play freely, you're not the favorites ...
Georgieva: Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say! I think we've always done very, very well as underdogs. We have that again now, after things haven't gone so well recently. I think you simply don't have such high expectations in this role, but you can surprise all the more. That's why I'm kind of pleased that we now have the chance not to be seen as the favorites straight away, but to attack from this underdog role.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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