[custom_adv] Her father is from Iran, her mother from Turkey, and the 27-year-old German had to begin her early days in football playing in a boys team.The German, born in Köln, explained to Onefootball that things have changed since she was growing up.“I started playing when I was three and 24 years ago it wasn’t like it is now,” Doorsoun laughs. [custom_adv] “Nowadays, a lot of girls play in the same teams as boys. But when I was three, four, five, six, that was something different.“The boys looked at me like, ‘no, what are you doing in our team, we don’t want to play with girls.’ But then I was totally accepted. Now it’s different, sometimes you see five or six girls in a boys team but I was the only one.” [custom_adv] Undeterred by that, it should come as no surprise that she has continued to defy the odds and now finds herself at a World Cup.Doorsoun played on and off for the Germany youth teams but didn’t make her senior bow for the national team until she was 24. A year on, she was playing at the Euros, where Germany suffered defeat to Denmark in the quarter-finals. [custom_adv]Two years on, the country isn’t anticipating glory – as it usually does when the women play – with the World Cup just around the corner.“After the Euros, nobody expects us to go there and win the World Cup,” Doorsoun admits. “Two years ago we were under a lot of pressure, everyone said we had to win, and we played really badly. [custom_adv] She started out as a goalkeeper but has moved up the pitch to become a winger, using her speed to her advantage. [custom_adv] Sara Doorsoun-Khajeh (born 17 November 1991) is a German footballer currently playing for VfL Wolfsburg and the Germany women's national football team as a midfielder and defender. She previously played for Wattenscheid 09, Bad Neuenahr, Turbine Potsdam and SGS Essen. [custom_adv] Having represented Germany from the under-15 level up, Doorsoun made her debut for the senior Germany women's national football team in 2016 during a 1–0 win over Hungary. [custom_adv] She has been called up for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 editions of the SheBelieves Cup, as well as the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 where she played in their 2–0 win over Russia and quarter-final match against Denmark.
