Angerer surprised at world best award

2013 has certainly been a year that Nadine Angerer will not forget in a hurry. She helped Germany to lift their sixth successive European trophy in Sweden, having playing a major part in the team’s success. In the final against Norway, the Germany keeper saved two penalties and was named player of the tournament for her performances, before also being voted UEFA’s Best Women’s Player in Europe a few weeks later. Angerer can now add FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2013 to her list of honours this year. FIFA.com spoke exclusively with the 35-year-old after the ceremony in Zurich. You are now the first goalkeeper to be named FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year. Describe your feelings right now. Nadine Angerer: I still can’t believe it, but I’m totally calm and can’t really take it in. I think I’ll have to sleep on it for a couple of nights until it finally all hits me. What a year it has been for you – has it felt like a dream? The summer certainly did. I trained for the European Championship for so long and ultimately we were all rewarded with the trophy. It wasn’t an easy title to win and it certainly wasn’t handed to us on a plate. We had ups and downs during the tournament, but we pulled ourselves through as a team time and time again. It was a successful tournament built entirely on team spirit. What do you think about your national team coach, Silvia Neid, being named FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football 2013? Completely justified. I’ve been training with Silvia Neid for 17 years, and although we’ve had our conflicts and disagreements over that time, she’s a coach who has improved an incredible amount, is technically very competent and has a good sense of how the team should be. She also prepares us extremely well to face each opponent and has the ability to bring out the best in each individual player. Would you like to dedicate this award to anyone or thank anybody in particular? There are so many – it's impossible to do it alone. Although I won the award, it represents so many people. I’d like to thank the team, because they were simply fantastic, and my family and friends, too. Above all, I’d like to dedicate this title to my goalkeeping coach, Michael Fuchs, who has consistently helped me to reach such a high level.