Marta Schmidt

Marta Eleni Schmidt was born in Germany in February 2006. Having trained his whole life at FC Carl Zeiss Jena, the young midfielder is now in the club’s third team in the Thuringian district. At the moment, Marta plays as a defensive midfielder in the Thuringian team’s 3x4x3, but she has the characteristics to play higher up in the centre.

From a physical point of view, Eleni is of medium height and morphologically mesomorphic. Her legs are also long, which gives her good traveling speed. She also has the agility on the ball and the strength to resist opponents’ attacks, as well as to win duels when not in possession.

Technically, Marta Schmidt is an advanced player. In terms of passing, she demonstrates precision and the ability to put the right tension on the ball depending on the type of pass she makes. With her back to pressure, she has no problem looking for the open woman. However, he also shows the cunning to turn under pressure by evading it with body feints – he can excel even when outnumbered (1v2) by spinning on the ball. When free of pressure, she manages to take advantage of the space in front of her through progression: she extends her stride, tries to lock onto her opponent, and releases the ball at the right time – she usually tries to place the ball in space so that a colleague can appear loose at the back of the defensive line.

Still technically, but from a defensive point of view, the youngster from 2006 shows a tremendous capacity for defensive transition, both in terms of reacting to a loss and recovering her position. In this second moment, she uses her physical qualities to lengthen the amplitude and frequency of her stride and catch up with her opponents. When close to the ball carrier, she is highly aggressive in her containment, which allows her to recover the ball – after recovery, she opts for a safe line of passing to relieve the centre of the play.

Her behaviour during game time is exemplary. She shows superlative intensity in the way she is always awake at all times, something that makes her ahead of the rest of the players – she anticipates scenarios, which demonstrates insight and intelligence. She makes the right decisions depending on the context and does so both with and without the ball. She moves well behind the opposition’s pressure and always provides lines of passing so that the team can progress through the central corridor. She can be more communicative, although her game conveys enough communication through the way she moves and expresses herself on the pitch.

In the future, given her potential and the performance she has already shown, I think it’s possible to see Marta Schmidt in the first team of FC Carl Zeiss Jena. She has a combination of very interesting qualities to add to the Thuringian side’s midfield, something that could earn her a ticket up the table. I believe that she could start to find a place in Florian Kaestner’s team training already this season.