Elke Mertens

Elke Mertens (* 1954 as Elke Stresow ) is a former German handball and soccer player .

Athletic career

Handball

In the spring of 1971 Mertens was in the goal of the handball league club Lokomotive Rangsdorf . After she joined the women's soccer team of the Turbine Potsdam company sports association founded on March 4, 1971 , a tug of war arose between her soccer coach Bernd Schröder and her handball coach Erwin Benke. This tug of war even occupied the district board of the then district board of the German Gymnastics and Sports Federation . In the end, Mertens decided to play football and thus against handball.

Soccer

On March 4, 1971, a women's soccer team was founded at the Turbine Potsdam company sports association . Mertens, who was only 17 at the time, learned from a classmate that the women's soccer team was being founded. Since she had already enjoyed playing soccer as a child, she decided to join the team. This led to problems with their handball team. There was a tug-of-war between her soccer trainer Bernd Schröder and her handball trainer Erwin Benke. This tug of war even occupied the district board of the then district board of the German Gymnastics and Sports Federation . In the end, Mertens decided to play football and thus against handball.

In the beginning she was used as a center forward. In November 1971 she scored eight times in a 10-0 win against TSV Luckenwalde . From the mid-1970s she also took on the role of team captain . In the later years she changed the position of striker to midfielder , then Vorstopperin and finally Libera .

In March 1973 she became district league champion with Turbine Potsdam and in May of the same year she won the district cup, which was only played once.

Even after the birth of their three children, Mertens continued to play for Turbine Potsdam. It was only in 1991 at the age of 38 that she left the first team in the women's football department, but remained with Turbine Potsdam. Mertens became a trainer for the boys because at that time there was still a lack of female offspring and later trained the C youth for girls. Mertens also trained her own daughter Manuela Mertens.

Private

Elke Mertens is a trained business and transport clerk. She has been married since July 1976 and is the mother of three children.

Web links

• Michael Meyer: The center forward who came out of the gate. In: pnn.de . February 12, 2011, accessed August 21, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carina Sophia Linne: It all starts in 1970 with a New Year's Eve joke. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Gießener Anzeiger. April 19, 2011, p. 12 , archived from the original on April 7, 2016 ; accessed on August 21, 2017 .