Vanessa Bernauer

Vanessa Bernauer (born 23 March 1988) is a Swiss football midfielder, currently playing for Roma in Serie A. She previously played for VfL Wolfsburg and BV Cloppenburg of the Frauen Bundesliga, FC Zurich in Switzerland's Nationalliga A and Levante UD in Spain's Primera Division.

Club Career

In Germany, Bernauer caught the attention of several clubs around the Bundesliga by scoring a 45-yard goal for Cloppenburg against Munich. Her performances with Cloppenburg would earn the admiration of major club Wolfsburg, who signed Bernauer in 2014.

At Wolfsburg, Bernauer would go on to win one league title and three German cups. In Europe, Bernauer would reach two Champions League finals and one semi-final during her stay with the club. The 2016 Champions League final saw Bernauer substituted in the 73rd minute, meaning she missed out on the chance to take a penalty in Wolfsburg's eventual shootout defeat to Lyon. The 2018 Champions League final saw Bernauer miss the game after picking up a major knee injury in the spring of 2018, while on international duty with Switzerland.

Wolfsburg decided to let Bernauer go while the midfielder was recovering from a major knee injury, so Bernauer then signed for A.S. Roma in the summer of 2018. Her first season with the Italian club saw Bernauer played in an advanced midfield role, but she struggled to meet expectations as the veteran playmaker of a young Roma team. The Italian club then made a series of high-profile midfield signings in the summer of 2019, but chose to keep Bernauer at the club. That meant Bernauer got to play among more experienced teammates during the 2019-20 Serie A season.

Among those new teammates was the major signing of midfielder Manuela Giugliano, for who Bernauer agreed to give up the Roma number 10 jersey at the club. Bernauer then took the Roma number 5 shirt and settled into a new role as a ball-winning midfielder, finding consistency and good form from 2019 onwards. In Bernauer's third season with Roma, and just five