Lara Dickenmann

Lara Dickenmann
	Dickenmann with VfL Wolfsburg in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Lara Joy Dickenmann
Date of birth	27 November 1985 (age 39)
Place of birth	Kriens, Switzerland
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Position(s)	Midfielder, Full-back
Youth career
1993–2000	SC Kriens
2000–2004	DFC Sursee
College career
Years	Team
2004–2007	Ohio State Buckeyes
Senior career*
Years	Team
2006	New Jersey Wildcats
2007	Jersey Sky Blue
2008–2009	FC Zürich
2009–2015	Lyon
2015–2021	VfL Wolfsburg
2019	VfL Wolfsburg II
International career
2002–2003	Switzerland U18
2002–2004	Switzerland U19
2002–2018	Switzerland
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Lara Joy Dickenmann (born 27 November 1985) is a Swiss footballer. She played for German club VfL Wolfsburg and with French club Olympique Lyonnais. She is a versatile footballer who can play as a midfielder or a full-back on either side of the field. She formerly played on the college level at the Ohio State University breaking many records and earning several player honors. In 2008, Dickenmann departed the university and joined D1 Féminine club Lyon.

Dickenmann is also a member of the Switzerland women's national football team. She starred for the national team at youth level and made her senior debut in August 2002 at the age of 16 against France, scoring in a 2–1 defeat.

Career

Youth career

Dickenmann was born in the town of Kriens located in the Canton of Lucerne. She began her career with the boy's section of local outfit SC Kriens spending seven years at the club. In 2000, she joined DFC Sursee. Dickenmann gained notice for her performance with her national team's youth sides helping the Swiss U-19 team reach the 2002 and 2004 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship and winning three league championships and two league cups with Sursee. For her efforts during the 2003–04 season, Dickenmann was named the Swiss Player of the Year.

Collegiate career

In 2004, Dickenmann decided to move to the United States of America to play college soccer at the Ohio State University. In her freshman season, she was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, as well as the nation's Freshman of the Year by numerous publications. She was also deemed a second-team All-American by the NSCAA. Dickenmann established single-season records for OSU in goals scored (13) and assisted on (12) helping Ohio State reach the Elite 8 in the NCAA national tournament.

In her sophomore season, due to earning call ups to the Swiss national team, Dickenmann missed significant playing time. However, she still earned all-Big Ten honors after being selected to the second team. Her junior season was more spectacular as she was named Ohio State's Most Valuable Player and was also selected as a first-team All-American by the NSCAA.^[3] On 14 December 2008, Dickenmann graduated from the university after completing a bachelor's degree in international business. She departed the university the career leader in assists (32), second in total points (89), and seventh in goals scored (27). Dickenmann was also a three-time Big Ten Academic All-American and a four-time Ohio State Scholar Athlete. She was the first Ohio State women's soccer player to earn an appearance on the Hermann Trophy watch list. The trophy is awarded to the top soccer player in the country.^[4]

Professional career

During the offseasons when Dickenmann was in college, in an effort to continue playing high level soccer and still maintain her college eligibility, she starred with the New Jersey Wildcats in 2006 and in 2007, played for Jersey Sky Blue. With Jersey Sky Blue, Dickenmann was named the W-League Most Valuable Player for the 2007 W-League season.^[5] Following her senior season at Ohio State, she played half a season with FC Zürich Frauen, the women's section of popular Swiss club FC Zürich helping the team win the 2008–09 league championship. Prior to graduating, it was announced that Dickenmann would be joining Division 1 Féminine club Olympique Lyonnais in 2009. Dickenmann joined the club mid-season during the 2008–09 season and was limited to only four appearances, though she did score two goals. Lyon were later declared champions of the league winning by a very wide margin. For the 2009–10 season, Dickenmann was named a starter and began the season on a positive note scoring a goal in Lyon's 6–0 win over Montigny-le-Bretonneux. On 29 November 2009, she scored her first professional hat trick in a 9–0 victory over ESOF Vendée La Roche-sur-Yon.

In April 2015 Dickenmann agreed a transfer to VfL Wolfsburg.^[6]

International career

Dickenmann starred with the Swiss women's under-19 team in both the 2002 and 2004 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship. In both editions, the Swiss failed to get out of the group stage. On 14 August 2002, at the age 16, she made her international debut in a match against France. Switzerland lost the match 2–1, but Dickenmann was responsible for the Swiss's only goal scoring it in the 33rd minute.^[7] Since her debut, Dickenmann has been a regular in the squad appearing in teams that attempted to qualify for UEFA Women's Euro 2005, the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, and UEFA Women's Euro 2009; all of which the Swiss have failed to qualify for. Dickenman and Switzerland also missed out on qualification for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. She scored her first goal of the qualification process in a 2–0 victory over the Republic of Ireland converting a penalty.^[8]

Goals scored for the Swiss WNT in official competitions
Competition	Stage	Date	Location	Opponent	Goals	Result	Overall
2007 FIFA World Cup	Qualifiers	2006–03–25	Biel	Republic of Ireland	2	2–0	2
2009 UEFA Euro	Qualifiers	2008–05–08	Oberdorf	Wales	2	2–0	2
2011 FIFA World Cup	Qualifiers	2009–09–19	Wohlen	Republic of Ireland	1	2–0	4
		2010–03–27	Wohlen	Israel	1	6–0
		2010–06–23	Karagandy	Kazakhstan	2	4–2
2013 UEFA Euro	Qualifiers	2011–11–24	Aarau	Kazakhstan	3	8–1	5
		2012–03–31	Aarau	Turkey	1	5–0
		2012–09–15	Istanbul	Turkey	1	3–1
2015 FIFA World Cup	Qualifiers	2013–09–21	Nyon	Serbia	1	9–0	10
		2013–09–26	Reykjavík	Iceland	1	2–0
		2014–02–12	Petach-Tikva	Israel	1	5–0
		2014–04–05	Zug	Malta	3	11–0
		2014–04–10	Aarau	Denmark	1	1–1
		2014–05–08	Nyon	Iceland	1	3–0
		2014–06–19	Inđija	Serbia	2	7–0
2017 UEFA Euro	Qualifiers	2015–10–27	Biel/Bienne	Georgia	1	4–0	4
		2015–11–27	Lurgan	Northern Ireland	1	8–1
		2016–09–15	Gori	Georgia	1	3–0
	First Stage	2017–07–22	Doetinchem	Iceland	1	2–1
2019 FIFA World Cup	Qualifiers	2017–09–15	Elbasan	Albania	1	4–1	5
		2017–09–19	Biel/Bienne	Poland	1	2–1
		2018–04–05	Schaffhausen	Scotland	1	1–0
		2018–06–12	Minsk	Belarus	2	5–0

Career statistics

Club

Statistics accurate as of match played 13 September 2015^[9]

Club	Season	League		Cup		Continental		Total
Club	Season	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
New Jersey Wildcats	2006	8	8	—				8	8
New Jersey Wildcats	Total	8	8	—				8	8
Jersey Sky Blue	2007	11	18	—				11	18
Jersey Sky Blue	Total	11	18	—				11	18
Zürich Frauen	2008–09	—
Zürich Frauen	Total	—
Lyon	2008–09	4	2	1	0	2	0	7	2
	2009–10	21	15	3	1	8	0	32	16
	2010–11	16	8	2	0	8	5	26	13
	2011–12	18	9	6	2	7	3	31	14
	2012–13	17	5	5	3	9	1	31	9
	2013–14	21	8	3	2	4	0	28	10
	2014–15	20	10	4	1	4	0	28	11
	Total	117	57	24	9	42	9	183	75
VfL Wolfsburg	2015–16	3	1	0	0	0	0	3	1
Career total		139	84	24	9	42	9	205	102

International

(Correct as of 18 May 2012)^[10]

National team	Season	Apps	Goals
Switzerland	2002–03	6	2
	2003–04	3	0
	2004–05	1	0
	2005–06	3	2
	2006–07	2	0
	2007–08	9	5
	2008–09	8	3
	2009–10	14	6
	2010–11	12	1
	2011–12	8	4
Total		66	23

International goals

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	14 August 2002		France	1–1	2–1	Friendly
2.	22 April 2006	Biel, Switzerland	Republic of Ireland	1–0	2–0	2007 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
3.	22 April 2006	Biel, Switzerland	Republic of Ireland	2–0	2–0	2007 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
4.	8 May 2008	Oberdorf, Switzerland	Wales	1–0	2–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying
5.	8 May 2008	Oberdorf, Switzerland	Wales	2–0	2–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying
6.	19 September 2009	Wohlen, Switzerland	Republic of Ireland	2–0	2–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
7.	24 February 2010	Larnaca, Cyprus	Canada	1–0	1–2	2010 Cyprus Women's Cup
8.	1 March 2010	Nicosia, Cyprus	England	1–0	2–2
9.	1 March 2010	Nicosia, Cyprus	England	2–2	2–2
10.	27 March 2010	Wohlen, Switzerland	Israel	5–0	6–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
11.	23 June 2010	Karagandy, Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan	2–1	4–2
12.	23 June 2010	Karagandy, Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan	3–2	4–2
13.	9 March 2011	Larnaca, Cyprus	Northern Ireland	1–0	2–1	2011 Cyprus Women's Cup
14.	24 November 2011	Aarau, Switzerland	Kazakhstan	1–0	8–1	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying
15.				5–1
16.				8–1
17.	31 March 2012		Turkey	5–0	5–0
18.	22 August 2012	Altach, Austria	Austria	2–0	2–1	Friendly
19.	15 September 2012	Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	1–0	3–1	UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying
20.	11 March 2013	Larnaca, Cyprus	Finland	2–2	3–2	2013 Cyprus Women's Cup
21.	21 September 2013	Nyon, Switzerland	Serbia	3–0	9–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
22.	26 September 2013	Reykjavík, Iceland	Iceland	2–0	2–0
23.	12 February 2014	Petah Tikva, Israel	Israel	4–0	5–0
24.	5 March 2014	Paralimni, Cyprus	South Korea	1–0	1–1	2014 Cyprus Women's Cup
25.	10 March 2014	Paralimni, Cyprus	Republic of Ireland	1–0	1–2	2014 Cyprus Women's Cup
26.	5 April 2014	Zug, Switzerland	Malta	2–0	11–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
27.				7–0
28.				11–0
29.	10 April 2014	Aarau, Switzerland	Denmark	1–1	1–1
30.	8 May 2014	Nyon, Switzerland	Iceland	3–0	3–0
31.	19 June 2014	Inđija, Serbia	Serbia	2–0	7–0
32.	19 June 2014	Inđija, Serbia	Serbia	4–0	7–0
33.	4 March 2015	Lagos, Portugal	Iceland	1–0	2–0	2015 Algarve Cup
34.	4 March 2015	Lagos, Portugal	Iceland	2–0	2–0	2015 Algarve Cup
35.	27 October 2015	Biel/Bienne, Switzerland	Georgia	3–0	4–0	UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying
36.	27 November 2015	Lurgan, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	8–1	8–1
37.	15 September 2016	Gori, Georgia	Georgia	3–0	3–0
38.	8 March 2017	Larnaca, Cyprus	South Korea	1–0	1–0	2017 Cyprus Women's Cup
39.	10 April 2017	Skien, Norway	Norway	1–1	1–2	Friendly
40.	22 July 2017	Doetinchem, Netherlands	Iceland	1–1	2–1	UEFA Women's Euro 2017
41.	15 September 2017	Elbasan, Albania	Albania	4–0	4–1	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
42.	19 September 2017	Biel/Bienne, Switzerland	Poland	2–1	2–1
43.	5 April 2018	Schaffhausen, Switzerland	Scotland	1–0	1–0
44.	12 June 2018	Minsk, Belarus	Belarus	2–0	5–0
45.	12 June 2018	Minsk, Belarus	Belarus	4–0	5–0
46.	30 August 2018	Paisley, Scotland	Scotland	1–2	1–2