Our guest on 19.04.2009 Steffi Jones, Former Soccer Star and Women’s World Cup Organizer

For years, Steffi Jones has been a defining face of women’s soccer in Germany. The defender was catapulted to world and European champion status with the national team, won bronze at the Olympic Games and secured a number of German Championships, as well as the DFB and UEFA Women’s Championship, with the FFC Frankfurt team. In 2007, she ended her career as an active player and took on a new challenge that keeps her busy to this day: She is president of the organization committee for the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany. Soccer has always been an important chapter in the life of Stephanie Ann, called "Steffi," Jones, but just one of many. She has won practically every important championship. The defender was catapulted to world and European champion status with the national team, won bronze at the Olympic Games and secured a number of German Championships, as well as the DFB and UEFA Women’s Championship, with the FFC Frankfurt team. She has experienced a lot on the soccer fields of this world and even went pro as a player in the United States.

It’s enough to write a book about, and the title of her biography, published in 2007, fits the bill: "Getting a Kick Out of Life – How I Made It to the Top." Jones also shines a light on the strokes of fate that prepared her for a life of soccer, as well as how they led to a glamorous career as a national player. The rise of Steffi Jones – it was a notable climb to the top precisely because it was so difficult.

Jones grew up as the child of a German woman and an African-American serviceman in the Bonames part of Frankfurt, a tough area of the city. Her father left the family early on for America. Her older brother, Christian, became a drug addict. And her other brother, Frank, lost both of his legs in a mine explosion in Iraq just a year ago. The 22-year-old US soldier was ambushed with his convoy before landing in a military hospital in Lahnstein, where his sister often made the 120-kilometer trip to visit him. He received prosthetic legs in San Antonio, Texas.

All this meant that Jones, who ended her career with the national team in March of 2007 after 111 games, missing her team’s championship victory in China, didn’t take the easy way up on her rise to fame. Soccer, to her, was a kind of life elixir, a constant incentive. "Without the sport," she said, she couldn’t have made it. "I went through a lot with my family life. Through the sport I learned that in life, you can never give up. Football was like my safe haven when I was troubled. It gave me security and a certain strength." Staying strong – that’s something Jones has always had to do. Moreover, she is energetic, honest and direct, with charm and charisma. And that is precisely why the DFB, the German Football Association, voted for her.

When the call came from DFB president Dr. Theo Zwanziger, Jones knew what it was about. "I just didn’t know what I should say," she added. As a fan of women’s soccer, the DFB president made it easy for her: "Steffi," he said, after a bit of small talk. "Do it, be our president for the organization committee for the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany." Jones took a deep breath and accepted. After she hung up the phone, she said she did "a little dance for joy." Dr. Theo Zwanziger said at her official introduction, "Steffi Jones’s life’s journey is a testament to the integrative power of sport, something that is more important than ever in our society. She didn’t always have it easy in life. But soccer made her into a magnificent personality." Jones follows in the footsteps of Franz Beckenbauer, who did an outstanding job organizing the men’s 2006 World Cup. Yet she shies away from any direct comparison to the "Kaiser", or emperor as he is called here in Germany. "I would never be so presumptuous," she said. "But maybe he can give me a tip or two."