Newsmaker: Birgit Prinz (Germany)

By Jesse Campigotto

Quick, name the reigning FIFA Women's World Cup champion. If you said Germany, you'd be right. And you'd probably also remember the brilliant performance of Birgit Prinz.

The five-foot-10 forward from Frankfurt netted seven goals in 2003 in the United States to lead Germany to its first-ever Women's World Cup title, an output that earned her both the golden shoe award as the event's top scorer and the golden ball as MVP.

It also propelled Prinz to her first of three consecutive FIFA world player of the year awards, and even garnered her an offer from eccentric AC Perugia president Luciano Gaucci to become the first woman to play in Italy's Serie A, though she declined.

"She's the most complete player in the world," Sigfried Dietrich, general manager of Prinz's professional club FFC Frankfurt, said at the time. "[She's] a powerful representative of German women's football and a great personality."

Now 29 and in her 14th year as a member of the German national team, Prinz has cemented her status as one of the greatest female footballers of all time.

In addition to her trio of world player of the years, Prinz has been named her country's top female soccer player for seven years running. She is also one of only three German women with more than 150 caps – 153 to be exact, over which she has tallied 99 goals and collected a pair of Olympic bronze medals, in 2000 and 2004.

And she's showing no signs of slowing down. Playing alongside fellow 150-cappers Renate Lingor (defence) and Kerstin Stegemann, Prinze led Germany to victories in each of its eight World Cup qualifiers as the team lit up its opponents for a combined 33 goals.

If Prinz can continue to play at her lofty level, Germany may be able to overcome the questionable health of keeper Silke Rottenberg and become the first team to repeat as Women's World Cup champs.

Despite her ability to dominate a match at any given time, Prinz knows that won't be an easy task.

"To win a major tournament, you not only have to play well, but you have to have a good team and also a bit of luck at the right moment," she told FIFA.com.