FRANKFURT: World Cup winner and top scorer Birgit Prinz has been awarded the distinction of honorary team captain of the German Football Association [DFB] writes CHRISTIAN RADNEDGE.

Prinz becomes the second woman to hold the honour, after Bettina Wiegmann. The other names are esteemed company as Fritz Walter, Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer and Lothar Matthaus are the male counterparts.

The striker played 214 international matches and scored 128 goals. She helped Germany dominate world football by lifting successive World Cups in the USA in 2003 and then in China in 2007.

Prinz received Germany’s highest footballing honour at the DFB Bundestag in Nuremberg last week and President Wolfgang Niersbach lauded her as one of football’s “greatest ambassadors”.

The former Frankfurt player was also FIFA Women’s World Footballer of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Last week’s accolade certainly must have made it a very special 36th birthday.

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