Marozsan: Celia’s talent helped us so much - FIFA BALLON D'OR 2015
 |
| Getty Images |
Whenever Dzsenifer Marozsan was on the ball, Celia Sasic always instinctively knew where to run. That blind understanding between the technically-gifted playmaker and the athletic, clinical striker had long become the trademark of the sides they played in together: Germany’s women’s national team and 1. FFC Frankfurt. They were reliable performers for both, and regularly tormented opposition defences.
Yet while the 23-year-old Marozsan will continue to turn out for both teams, Sasic, four years her senior, retired from the game in the summer. Nevertheless, the striker still has one last highlight to look forward too, as she is on the final shortlist for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award alongside Carli Lloyd, who won the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™ with USA, and Japan’s Aya Miyama. It is therefore no surprise that Marozsan is crossing her fingers for her former attacking partner ahead of the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala on 11 January.
“Celia would deserve to be named 2015 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year because her talent helped us so much, both at Frankfurt in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and with the German national team at the Women’s World Cup in Canada,” Marozsan told FIFA.com in an exclusive interview. “Not only were her important goals and individual quality hugely valuable to both teams, her wonderful personality was too.”
Although Sasic helped Frankfurt be crowned European champions for the first time in seven years last season, Germany could only finish fourth at the global showdown in Canada, even if they did produce some world-class performances along the way. “In the Champions League final Celia paved the way for our triumph with her header to put us 1-0 up,” said Marozsan. “None of us at Frankfurt will ever forget that. In the end we beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-1. On top of that she finished as the competition’s top scorer that season with 14 goals.”
"Not only were her important goals and individual quality hugely valuable to both teams, her wonderful personality was too."
Dzsenifer Marozsan on Celia Sasic
Furthermore, Marozsan spoke in glowing terms of Sasic’s displays at Canada 2015, a tournament where she herself struggled with injuries: “It hasn’t been forgotten that in the World Cup quarter-finals against France she scored the all-important equaliser with a clinical penalty, and then scored again in the penalty shoot-out. In the end her six goals in Canada also won her the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer. That says it all really.”
It is now five years since a young Marozsan played alongside Sasic in the national team for the first time. Three years later Sasic joined Marozsan at Frankfurt, where they went on to cause a sensation at club level. The playmaker held her older and more experienced team-mate in high regard both on and off the pitch from the first time they met. “Celia is an incredibly open person, always available for a chat and always willing to help,” said Marozsan. “She’s simply a really lovely person. As a player she always shouldered responsibility and was always one of the people to constantly drive us on whenever things weren’t going well.”
Asked if one memory in particular stands out of the 111-time international, Marozsan said: “She was always involved whenever there was singing or dancing on the team bus. She always sat on the very back row and you couldn’t ignore her!” Marozsan smiles when the conversation touches upon Sasic’s special presence both on and off the pitch. Perhaps the striker will have cause to sing and dance again on the second Monday in January - and maybe even on the glamorous stage at the Kongresshaus in Zurich.