PhD Lounge
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PhD Lounge

Luis Maia

  • 56 Episodes
  • English
  • Last updated Jul 23, 2023
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Solo Session: The only Footballer to play a World Cup and hold a PhD

Jun 24, 2026 • S01 E48 • 00:04:52

Students and Graduates!

As the World Cup 2026 is underway, did you know there is only one professional footballer who played a World Cup and obtained a PhD?

I introduce to you Turid Knaak, PhD, a former German professional footballer who had 16 caps* for Germany's female national team and played the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France, and top tier clubs such as Arsenal, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Atlético Madrid and VfL Wolfsburg where she retired from professional football in 2022.

What is also brilliant along her footballing career is that she obtained a PhD at the University of Köln in Children's Special Needs Education in 2021 while still playing for Atlético Madrid. Her dissertation research was about the complex learning of basic text production for years 3 and 7 pupils, exploring learning and diagnostic methods and exercises including spelling, oral lexicon and multi-component storytelling to argue the advantages and limitations in the improvement of school marks in pupils' vocabulary, knowledge of the grammar and high quality written language.

Dr Turid Knaak currently works as a football pundit, commentator and tactical expert for DAZN and Sky, and as football analyst at IMPECT.

Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!

*2:36: Apologies for my mistake on the video as I noticed on her football profile that she had 16 caps for Germany and not 15 after editing this session.

Bibliography:

bravery.reports. (2021, August 19). Profi Fußballerin Turid Knaak über ihre Karriere in der Bundesliga und der Nationalmannschaft. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnx7ciUqMdI

Doeker, E. (2021, June 11). Turid Knaak: A Doctor who scores goals. Football Engine. https://www.footballengine.net/post/turid-knaak-a-doctor-who-scores-goals

Knaak, T. (2021). Bedeutung und Förderung grundlegender Schreibkompetenzen bei Schülerinnen und Schülern mit Lernschwierigkeiten (doctoral dissertation). University of Köln. https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/51599/1/Dissertation%20Knaak.pdf

Strohschein, J. (2019, May 17). Knaak: “Very few women can live off football.” dw.com. https://www.dw.com/en/turid-knaak-very-few-women-can-live-off-football/a-48782166

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