Out of the comfort zone: Laura Miller and Netty Thinnes

Netty Thinnes vividly remembers the first time her daughter, Laura Miller, stepped onto a football pitch as a young girl. “It was like magic!” she says. “I was really impressed.”

Now the captain of the Luxembourg women’s football team, Laura was so young she does not remember much about that day. But it is clear she was immediately smitten with the beautiful game.

“As parents, you try to get your kids involved in different activities,” says Netty, who has been running her own communications agency, Mediation, for over 30 years. “With Laura we tried music, karate, scouts and ballet. But as soon as she was told she had to wear a tutu, she said ‘that’s not for me’.”

Spying her older brother’s discarded football boots – he was not a natural talent, Netty explains – Laura decided that was the sport she wanted to try. She has not looked back since.

When she reached the age at which girls have to play separately from boys, she joined Junglinster and was soon made captain of the team.

It is fair to say that Netty, who has served on the boards of Luxembourg marketing and communications federation MarkCom as well as Femmes Pionnières du Luxembourg, was not really into football. “I think she enjoyed watching me play, but she never became a real fan of the game,” says Laura, who has just started training with her new club, Bundesliga outfit FC Nürnberg following four successful seasons with Standard Liège during which she twice won the Belgian Cup.

Nürnberg are newcomers to the Bundesliga after winning promotion last season. Laura acknowledges it will be a tough first season. “I think mentally it could be a challenge. But, maybe as underdogs, we can manage to pull off some surprises.”

She is certainly not one to shirk from a challenge. At just 19 she was made captain of the national team, having made her international debut at 17 years of age. “I was the only one playing abroad,” Laura says modestly. That also put pressure on her young shoulders, but she has acquitted herself well, thanks to the support and respect she gets from her teammates as well as her parents.

“My mother is very hard working and her mentality also helps me in football,” Laura says. “She has always been behind me but also pushed me out of my comfort zone.” That sense of hard work and determination also paid off for Laura’s older brother, Pol, a successful entrepreneur who co-founded and now manages popular food truck company LëtzeBurger.

“He got into it at 18, and he just went for it. And I think it’s the same for women getting into football. It requires the same mentality,” says Laura.

Netty recalls that as early as age eight, Laura had decided she wanted to become a professional football player. “Her dream was to play for Barcelona and emulate Lionel Messi by winning the Ballon d’Or.” Laura confirms that playing in the Spanish league remains an ambition. Spain national team superstar Alexia Putellas, who won the Ballon d’Or in 2020 and 2021, is a role model she particularly admires.

Her mother admires Laura’s strength and focus. “She has a high sense of discipline. Like other girls, she loves a party, but she knows when it’s appropriate. It’s always football first.”

Indeed, football is such a priority that Netty admits she is surprised that Laura looks like she will complete her bachelor’s degree and then hopefully do a master’s. “Because she knows that her playing career is only for a limited time. Nürnberg has a very good sports school and her aim is to become a trainer.”

But Netty knows that her daughter has the tenacity to complete her studies. And that she has the natural leadership skills required of a national sports team captain. “Since a kid she has been strong. She fought with boys and defended her brother. As captain she also has a social function.”

That role model function came to the fore this year, when the women’s national team felt slighted by the lack of recognition from the Luxembourg Football Federation after they won promotion to B league in the Nations League.

“I told her, you don’t just have to think about yourself, you have to think about the team,” says Netty. “But she showed real leadership.”

Laura admits that she struggled initially with the controversy, because she didn’t want to upset the federation. “But I wanted to get it resolved, and with the team behind me I think I handled it quite well. I hope that the consequences have a good impact on the future [for the women’s game].”