Inka Grings

Inka Grings

Personal information
Full name	Inka Grings
Date of birth	31 October 1978 (1978-10-31)
Place of birth	Düsseldorf, West Germany
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 6 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	FC Zürich Frauen
Youth career
1984–1990	TSV Eller 04
1990–1995	Garather SV
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1995–2011	FCR 2001 Duisburg	271	(353)
2011–	FC Zürich Frauen
National team‡
1996–	Germany	96	(64)
Honours Competitor for Germany Women's Football Bronze 2000 Sydney Team Competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 02:35, 20 June 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 22:22, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Inka Grings (born 31 October 1978) is a German footballer. She played sixteen years as a striker for FCR 2001 Duisburg, today she plays for FC Zürich Frauen. She also plays for the German national team. Grings is the all-time leading goalscorer in Germany's top division, the Bundesliga, having claimed the league's top-scorer award for a record six seasons. Playing for Germany, she has also been the top-scorer at two UEFA European Championships. Grings was named German Female Footballer of the Year in 1999, 2009 and 2010.

Career

Club

As a child Grings wanted to be a tennis player. However, after no tennis club had accepted her, she instead started playing football at TSV Eller 04 in 1984. She later played for Garather SV, before joining FCR 2001 Duisburg in 1995. She quickly became an important player for the club and in the following years one of the most successful goalscorers in Germany. In 1998, Grings won the German Cup, her first major title. She scored three goals in the final against FSV Frankfurt. The following year in the 1998–99 season she became the Bundesliga's top-scorer for the first time. Grings was named German Female Footballer of the Year in 1999 by the country's sports journalists.

Over the next decade, Grings became the Bundesliga all-time leading goalscorer, hitting the mark of 350 goals in January 2011. She won the Bundesliga title with Duisburg in the 1999–00 season; that year she also set the all-time record for goals in a Bundesliga season by scoring 38 goals. She won the German Cup on two more occasions in 2009 and 2010, and lifted the UEFA Women's Cup in the 2008–09 season. Grings was the Bundesliga top-scorer for three years in a row from 2008 to 2010 and was again voted Germany's Female Footballer of the Year in 2009 and 2010.

She ended her contract at Duisburg one year early in an agreement with the club and announced transferring to an international club. On 1 September 2011 she joined Swiss side FC Zürich Frauen.

International

Grings made her debut for the German national team in May 1996 against Finland. She appeared for Germany at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, scoring three goals. However, Germany was eliminated in the quarter-final. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, she won the bronze medal with the German team, scoring once against Australia in the group stage. Grings' career, particularly at international level, has repeatedly been affected by injuries. She missed the 2001 European Championship on home soil and the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup due to injury. When she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee shortly before the 2004 Summer Olympics, Grings initially announce to end her career. However, she changed her mind during physical therapy.

With four goals, Grings was the top-scorer at the 2005 European Championship, when Germany claimed its sixth European title. At the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2008 Summer Olympics, Grings was not part of the German squad, because of disagreements with head coach Silvia Neid. She returned for Germany at the 2009 European Championship, claiming her second European title. With five goals Grings again was the tournament's top-scorer. She has been called-up for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Grings has scored 64 international goals and is ranked third behind Birgit Prinz (128) and Heidi Mohr (83) for Germany's all-time top goalscorers. During 93 appearances, she has averaged 0.69 goals per games, which makes her the team's second most prolific scorer.

Honours

Club

FCR 2001 Duisburg

• Bundesliga: Winner (1) 1999–00, Runner-up (7) 1996–97, 1998–99, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10
• German Cup: Winner (3) 1997–98, 2008–09, 2009–10, Runner-up (3) 1998–99, 2002–03, 2006–07
• UEFA Women's Cup: Winner (1) 2008–09

International

• UEFA European Championship: Winner (2) 2005, 2009
• Summer Olympic Games: Bronze medal (1) 2000

Individual

• German Footballer of the Year: (3) 1999, 2009, 2010
• Top-scorer Bundesliga: (6) 1998–99, 1999–00, 2002–03, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10
• Top-scorer UEFA Women's Championship: (2) 2005, 2009
• Top-scorer UEFA Women's Champions League: (1) 2010–11

External links

• Profile at the German Football Association (German)
• Inka Grings – FIFA competition record
• Profile at Weltfussball.de (German)

Preceded by Silke Rottenberg	German Female Footballer of the Year 1999	Succeeded by Martina Voss
Preceded by Birgit Prinz	German Female Footballer of the Year 2009, 2010	Succeeded by incumbent