Former Arsenal and England defender Faye White has named legendary former Germany forward Birgit Prinz as the best ever.
Prinz had an incredible career at club level for Frankfurt, and also scored a remarkable 128 goals for her country, winning the Women’s World Cup twice, alongside numerous other major honours.
Euro 2022 is now reaching its final stages, with England winning last night’s semi-final against Sweden, while their opponents in the final will be decided this evening as France take on Germany.
This has seen former England stars Faye White and Kelly Smith get together to discuss their all time Euros line up, with Prinz leading the line.
Arsenal and Netherlands star Vivienne Miedema is another to get into the front three, while White was also kind enough to name Smith in the team, telling her: “The other one is the one you won’t speak about because it’s you! At a time when England weren’t one of the best teams, you were up there as third in World Player of the Year. You played in America, you blew them away. You got your shirt retired. I’ll put you there, you’d get my shout, but you’ve just got to agree on it.”
Prinz got the highest praise of all, however, with White recalling how difficult it was to play against her during her days playing in defence for the Lionesses.
“Power. Beast. She was so strong, so clinical,” she said. “You knew you couldn’t give her an inch because she would just take that opportunity. Best forward ever, I believe. How can you score 90-odd goals in 106 games?”
Renate Lingor was another former Germany player who got especially high praise, with Smith recalling that she was skilful enough to make her look very silly in matches.
“For me the one that stands out is Lingor. She was two-footed, she was skilful, she could turn – I couldn’t get near her! Even if you got tight, she just spun on a sixpence and just played the easy pass. And you’re like ‘oh my god where did she go?'”
This summer’s Euro 2022 tournament has been great to watch, and it looks like this current England team could end up becoming legends of the future who could one day join some of the other big names in an all-time XI.
Germany and France meet at 8pm this evening, and the winner will then take on England in this Sunday’s final.
COMMENTS