Kerstin Stegemann (born September 29, 1977) is a former female football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player from Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Born in Rheine-Mesum, she made her football debut at age 15 in 1993, playing for FFC Heike Rheine

FFC Heike Rheine

FFC Heike Rhine is a German women's football club based in Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia. The team currently plays in the German third division Regionalliga West. Heike Rheine was the first independent women's football club in Germany.-History:...

 in the Frauen Bundesliga

Fußball-Bundesliga (women)

The Women's Football Bundesliga is the main league competition for women's football in Germany. In 1990 the German Football Association created the German Women's Bundesliga, based on the model of the men's Bundesliga. It was first played with north and south divisions, but in 1997 the groups...

. Within two years, she made her first appearance for the German national team

Germany women's national football team

The German women's national football team represents Germany in international women's football and is directed by the German Football Association . The team – informally called West Germany in English – played its first international match in 1982...

, playing in an April 13, 1995 match against Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. She has been a mainstay of the national team ever since, playing on Germany's Bronze Medal-winning squads in the 2000

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

 and 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

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

Along with Birgit Prinz

Birgit Prinz

Birgit Prinz is a former German female professional association football player. She last played for 1. FFC Frankfurt and the German national team. Prinz is one of the game's most prolific strikers and the FIFA Women's World Cup all-time leading scorer with 14 goals . She has been named FIFA...

 and Bettina Wiegmann

Bettina Wiegmann

Bettina Wiegmann is a retired German football midfielder. She scored 51 goals in 154 caps for the German national team between 1989 and 2003. In 1997 she was selected German Female Footballer of the Year....

, she is one of only three German women with more than 150 caps

Cap (sport)

In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...

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

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. She also holds a team record with 61 consecutive international matches played.

Stegemann retired in 2010 with 191 international appearances and eight goals to her credit.

External links