Around the World with Adit: Marleen Schimmer
Do what you love and success will come naturally.
Born in the country that has won four men's FIFA World Cups, it may seem natural that Marleen Schimmer turned into the fantastic soccer player she is now.
Marleen was born in Mainz, Germany, in the year 2000. Mainz is her home, where she first kicked a soccer ball and studied through high school.
Marleen spent most of her childhood with her now 24-years-old brother, the person she considers the most important in her life whom she would play and hang around with as a kid.
Before getting into soccer, Marleen was your typical kid who loved to play and had weekly music lessons.
Marleen's mother, Marion Schimmer, was a pianist, and she wanted her daughter to taste what it's like to play musical instruments.
"She wants me to look into (piano), but although I think it's a pretty instrument, I didn't really like it," she said. "So I picked up the guitar."
Back then, soccer was just a hobby that she played with her brother and friends in the backyard or the streets of Mainz, but when she turned 7 years old, her liking of soccer turned into a passion.
Marleen started begging her father, Markus Schimmer, to sign her up for a club team.
"It was fun to play in the streets, but I knew I wanted more than that. I wanted to play with teammates every day," she said. "I want to do this (soccer) every day, and I want to be good at it."
After days of begging her father, Markus finally gave in and signed his daughter up to a club team, where she practiced for years.
From that point on, everything in Marleen's life was about soccer. Even in her free time, she would be watching soccer matches or play FIFA video games.
To add to Marleen's obsession with soccer, the Mainz community is also very passionate about the sport. Little boys to older women would go to watch games regularly.
She said it was fun being a soccer player in Europe.
Unfortunately, even though soccer is Germany's most popular sport, there weren't any girls' teams in Marleen's hometown, so the team that Markus signed her up for was a boys' team.
"Naturally, (when I was playing for the boys' team) people always look at me a certain way," she said. "I hear people say things like 'she's a girl, she can't be that good,' and stuff like that."
She had to step up and earn the respect of her teammates and eventually did after showing her capabilities on the field. Once Marleen earned that said respect, she said she created lasting bonds with her then teammates.
"I think just having been able to play with boys is a great experience for me," she said.
Maybe part of the reason she is as good as she is now.
At 14 years old, Marleen signed her first professional contract with her hometown team, TSV Schott Mainz, in Germany's second division of Bundesliga.
"I was basically a kid playing with 28-29-year-old women. They can pass as my mother!" she said jokingly.
Marleen would get nervous coming to practices being a 14-year-old among older women. There is a hierarchy structure in the team, and being the runt means that she had to stay grounded most of the time.
On top of the psychological challenges, it was also physically demanding as the other players were way more mature and experienced than her.
"I had no choice but to grow up quickly at that stage," she said.
A stage that turned out to be helpful later on in her life.
She played for TVS Schott Mainz for three years with 35 appearances, scoring 16 goals. She also learned a lot of things from her veteran seniors.
At the same age when she signed her first professional contract, Marleen was chosen as a representative for the German youth national team.
She described the time as being under constant pressure.
The competition is high, and Marleen had to keep performing well to retain her spot, which involved spending countless hours training on the soccer field.
Marleen had to deal with out-of-field competitiveness, which sometimes brewed in an unhealthy way.
She said people at her school would even talk behind her back about skipping classes because the national team called her.
It was taxing both physically and mentally; thus, every time people would come up to her saying that she would be a great player in the future, Marleen say "just let me enjoy this moment right now."
A mindset that she appears to have picked up from the player she adores; Ronaldinho.
When asked about her favorite player, she said she likes watching Brazilian players like Ronaldinho and Neymar.
"They always seem to be having fun while on the pitch," she said.
She was in the German national youth team from 14 to 19 years old, playing 56 games as a representative. Her most memorable moment in the national team was winning the under 17 European Championships in 2017, right before she departed for the U.S.
"Just playing with the best players on my age from all of Europe is a great experience," she said.
Marleen's family was very supportive of her and is very involved with her soccer career. They would go to two-hour away games and would not miss one.
Markus, specifically, supported her in a way that she would describe as pressuring.
"He always wants me to perform better than I did, which at times would come as negative," she said. "But I knew that he means well, and I needed that kind of support at that point of my life."
When she graduated high school, Marleen was given a choice to either play professionally in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich or go abroad and play college soccer in the U.S.
Marleen had never thought about going to the U.S., but the idea of combining academics and sports intrigued her.
"I always love to try new things, and I thought that if I don't like it, I can just go home after a year," she said. "But it turned out to be the best decision I have ever made."
That's when she left for Arizona State.
Being forced to grow up quickly while playing for TSV Schott Mainz and traveling to different countries as a national representative helped prepare Marleen's move to a foreign country at 17.
Marleen said she quickly fell in love with the American culture.
Naturally, she went through a bit of a culture shock, but she loves that she could be herself and be accepted here in the U.S.
"In Europe, there is a level of expectations in how we should act," she said.
Marleen is also amazed by how everyone is supportive in everything she does, making her enjoy what she does even more.
"It seems like everyone here is genuinely happy with my successes and cares about me," she said. "It's not something that I got to experience a lot when I was back in Germany."
As with her German soccer career, her family fully supported her departure to the U.S.
Although Marion was saddened by her departure, especially since Marleen's brother also left the house to be a police officer, but she is ultimately happy that Marleen is doing what she wants to do in life.
After two years and 11 goals as a Sun Devil, Marleen transferred to Grand Canyon in her junior year.
Throughout that time, she said she met people that helped her improve as a person.
"As I said, I like adventures, and at times it jeopardizes my discipline, so I am grateful that I have coaches and others that keep me in line both in Arizona State and Grand Canyon," she said.
"Looking back at where I was four years ago to who I am now, it is crazy how much progress I have made," she said. "Now I feel like I can take on anything."
With a current total of 12 goals as a Lope, Marleen still has another year before hoping to get drafted and play professionally in the National Women's Soccer League.
She is currently working on completing her bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in nutrition. She is looking to focus more on nutrition and hopes to earn a master's degree later.
She wants to be a registered dietitian for a professional sports team later in her life.
