Sandra Starke

Sandra Starke

Starke training with Freiburg in 2019
Personal information
Full name	Sandra Starke [1]
Date of birth	(1993-07-31) 31 July 1993 (age 31)
Place of birth	Windhoek, Namibia
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	RB Leipzig
Number	13
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2009–2013	Turbine Potsdam II	81	(36)
2012	Turbine Potsdam	1	(0)
2013–2021	Freiburg	152	(41)
2017–2018	Freiburg II	4	(0)
2021–2023	VfL Wolfsburg	19	(3)
2021–2023	VfL Wolfsburg II	5	(1)
2023	→ Chicago Red Stars (loan)	7	(0)
2023–	RB Leipzig	10	(1)
International career‡
2009	Germany U16	4	(1)
2011–2012	Germany U19	2	(0)
2019–	Germany	6	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 26 March 2023 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 05:12, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Sandra Starke (born 31 July 1993) is a Namibian-born German footballer who plays as a forward for Frauen-Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Germany national team.

She was born in Windhoek, Namibia to a Namibian-born German father and a Dutch mother. ^[2]

Career

Club

Sandra Starke was born and raised in Namibia and came to Germany at age twelve. On the recommendation of a friend, she went to the "Sportschule Friedrich-Ludwig Jahn", the sports boarding school of the 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam. ^[3]  From 2006 to 2010 she played in the youth teams and won the German B junior championship in 2008, 2009, and 2010. In 2010 she got promoted to the professional squad, but she was mainly used for the second team in the 2nd Bundesliga North.

Her first-team debut came on November 23, 2012. ^[4] In the summer of 2013, Starke signed a contract with SC Freiburg. On September 14, 2013 (2nd matchday) she scored her first Bundesliga goal in the 1–2 defeat in the away game against FC Bayern Munich with the goal in the 51st minute. ^[5] In 2017/18 Starke was injured ^[6]  but was able to play again in the 2018/19 season and extended her contract with Freiburg in February 2019. ^[7]

In February 2021, Starke signed a 3-year contract with VfL Wolfsburg until mid-2024. ^[8]

In April 2023, she joined Chicago Red Stars on loan. The agreement is valid until June 30, 2023. From July 1, 2023 she will play for RB Leipzig, where she has signed a contract until 2025. ^{[9] [10]}

National Team

For the U16 national team, she played four international matches in the Nordic Cup tournament, for the first time on June 29, 2009 in Hagfors / Sweden in a 3–0 victory over the selection of the Netherlands, when she came on in the 67th minute for Sofia Nati, most recently on July 4, 2009 in the 2–1 defeat by the Swedes. Her only international goal came on June 30, 2009 in Forshaga, 1–0 after 15 minutes in a 6–0 win over the Icelandic team. Starke was in the squad for the U17 national team for the 2010 World Cup, but did not play. Most recently, from 2011 to 2012, she made five appearances for the U19 national team. She made her debut for the senior team in a 5–0 win over Greece on 8 October 2019, scoring her first senior international goal with a 3–0 goal in the 65th minute. She had come on for Linda Dallmann in the second half. ^[11]

Miscellaneous

On the occasion of World Diabetes Day on November 14, 2020, Starke made her type 1 diabetes public, which was first diagnosed a few years earlier. ^[12]

She is the sister of Namibian international footballer Manfred Starke. ^[13]

Career statistics

Club

As of 26 March 2023 ^[14]

Club	Division	Season	League		League Cup		Continental		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Turbine Potsdam II	2. Frauen-Bundesliga	2009–10	20	1	—		—		20	1
		2010–11	18	9	—		—		18	9
		2011–12	22	14	—		—		22	14
		2012–13	21	12	—		—		21	12
	Total		81	36	—		—		81	36
Turbine Potsdam	Frauen-Bundesliga	2010–11	0	0	3	0	—		3	0
		2012–13	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Total		1	0	3	0	0	0	4	0
Freiburg	Frauen-Bundesliga	2013–14	17	6	4	2	—		21	8
		2014–15	21	11	4	2	—		25	13
		2015–16	21	5	3	1	—		24	6
		2016–17	21	3	4	1	—		25	4
		2017–18	8	1	2	0	—		10	1
		2018–19	21	6	5	5	—		26	11
		2019–20	22	5	2	2	—		24	7
		2020–21	21	4	4	2	—		25	6
	Total		152	41	28	15	0	0	180	56
Freiburg II	2. Frauen-Bundesliga	2017–18	4	0	—		—		4	0
Wolfsburg	Frauen-Bundesliga	2021–22	18	3	2	0	2	0	22	3
		2022–23	1	0	1	0	—		2	0
	Total		19	3	3	0	2	0	24	3
Wolfsburg II	2. Frauen-Bundesliga	2021–22	1	0	—		—		1	0
		2022–23	4	1	—		—		4	1
	Total		5	1	0	0	0	0	5	1
Career total			262	81	34	15	2	0	298	96

International

As of 18 September 2021 ^[15]

Germany
Year	Apps	Goals
2019	2	1
2020	1	0
2021	3	0
Total	6	1

International goal

Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first:

Starke – goals for Germany
#	Date	Location	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	8 October 2019	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium, Thessaloniki, Greece	Greece	3–0	5–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2021 qualifying

Achievements

• German Cup: Finalist 2019, Winner 2022
• German Champion: 2022
• German B Junior Champion: 2008, 2009, 2010

References

1. "FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Trinidad and Tobago 2010 – List of Players: Germany" (PDF). FIFA. 6 September 2010. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
2. "Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Manfred Starke!" (in German). Hansa Rostock. 21 February 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
3. "Fußballinternat: Eine wie Podolski". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN   1865-2263 . Retrieved 30 May 2023.
4. "Sandra Starke feiert Debüt in der ersten Bundesliga". 15 December 2012. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
5. "Sandra Starke verstärkt SC-Frauen | SC Freiburg". 20 October 2014. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
6. "Wolfsburg im Spitzenspiel gegen Potsdam". DFB – Deutscher Fußball-Bund e.V. (in German). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
7. "Sandra Starke verlängert ihren Vertrag beim Sport-Club | SC Freiburg". 25 March 2019. Archived from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
8. "Vierter Neuzugang steht fest". VfL Wolfsburg (in German). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
9. "Leihe zum Partnerverein". VfL Wolfsburg (in German). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
10. RBLive/msc. "Erster Neuzugang vom VfL Wolfsburg: Sandra Starke verstärkt die Frauen". rblive.de (in German). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
11. "Greece vs. Germany – 8 October 2019 – Soccerway". int.soccerway.com. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
12. Zeitung, Badische (13 November 2020). "Diagnose Diabetes: So gehen Freiburgs OB Horn und Fußballerin Starke mit ihrer Krankheit um". Badische Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 30 May 2023.
13. "Broken windows and a sibling rivalry". FIFA. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2020.^{[ dead link ‍]}
14. "Sandra Starke – VfL Wolfsburg – FuPa". www.fupa.net.
15. "Sandra Starke". dfb.de. 18 September 2021.

External links

• Germany player profile
• Profile at soccerdonna.de
• Sandra Starke at Soccerway