Popp Scores Twice as 4,572 Watch Dortmund Third-Tier Debut — SkimNews
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- Alexandra Popp scored twice on her debut for Borussia Dortmund's women's team in a 3-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld in Germany's third tier
- The match drew 4,572 spectators to the Stadion Rote Erde, more than double the club's average attendance last season, with season ticket sales rising from 600 to 1,700 since her arrival
- Popp's name shirt is currently outselling those of men's team top scorer Serhou Guirassy in Dortmund's club shop
- Borussia Dortmund did not have a women's team until 2020, starting in the seventh tier and now competing in the third after rising through the pyramid
- Popp, a 35-year-old with 67 international goals and six Bundesliga titles won at Wolfsburg, left the top flight on a three-year contract to rejoin the club she supported as a girl
- Her stated goal is to win the third-tier championship and reach the Bundesliga "as fast as we can" — last season Dortmund finished with a goal difference over 100 but missed promotion by two points, dropping both in this corresponding fixture against Arminia
Why it matters: A 35-year-old Germany legend leaving Wolfsburg to play in the third tier for her boyhood club has more than doubled Dortmund women's matchday attendance, nearly tripled season ticket sales (600 to 1,700), and pushed her shirt past men's top scorer Serhou Guirassy — concrete evidence the club's seventh-tier-to-Bundesliga plan is becoming a sporting reality inside Popp's three-year contract.
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