Ana-Maria Crnogorčević was born on 3 October 1990 in Steffisburg, by Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland,[5][6] to Croat parents from Ruma, in Vojvodina, with origins in Drniš, Croatia.[7] She has dual nationality[2] and considers herself both Swiss and Croatian;[8] her first language was Croatian.[9] She speaks many languages and received scorn from some rival fans while playing for Barcelona and responding in Catalan to a question asked in Spanish.[10][11][12] Crnogorčević has a sister and was raised Catholic.[9]
Club career
Crnogorčević began her club career with FC Steffisburg at age 11. In 2004, she moved to FC Rot-Schwarz Thun, then later to FC Thun. In 2009, she helped Rot-Schwarz win the Swiss Cup final. Crnogorčević scored a hat-trick in the 8–0 win over FC Schlieren.[13] She was the top-scorer with 24 goals in 16 games in the Nationalliga A.[13] In September 2009 she joined GermanBundesliga team Hamburger SV. She made her debut for HSV on 27 September, scoring in a 3–2 win against SG Essen-Schönebeck. Crnogorčević finished her first season in Germany with eight goals from 19 appearances.[14] For the 2011–12 season she moved to 1. FFC Frankfurt, with which she won the Champions League in 2015.[15]
On 5 August 2024, Seattle Reign FC announced that they had signed Crnogorčević from Spanish club Atlético Madrid through the 2025 season for an undisclosed transfer fee.[21] Crnogorčević made her debut for the club on 25 August 2024, starting and playing 75 minutes in a 1-0 victory against North Carolina Courage.[22]
International career
Youth
Aged 17, she scored 25 goals in 29 games for the Switzerland U19 team.[2] At the 2009 UEFA U19 Championship in Belarus, she reached the semi-final with her team. She was selected in the U20 for the 2012 U20 World Cup in Japan. She played in all three matches but was eliminated in the group stage.
Senior
Crnogorčević was approached to play for Croatia when she was 17;[2] though raised with Croatian culture,[9] she always wanted to play for Switzerland.[8]
Crnogorčević succeeded with the Swiss national team in qualifying for the 2017 European Championship in the Netherlands, where she was top scorer with seven goals. On 4 June 2016, she surpassed previous Swiss all-time goalscorer Lara Dickenmann by adding two goals in a qualifier against the Czech Republic.[25] At the European Championship, she scored a goal in the 1–1 draw with France, but her team was eliminated after the group stage. In the subsequent qualification for the 2019 World Cup, she scored two goals in eleven games. However, the Swiss did not qualify this time because they lost in the last play-off round against European champions Netherlands.[citation needed]
On 13 April 2021, she converted her team's last penalty to 3–2 in the second leg of qualifying play-off for the Euro 2022 against the Czech Republic, succeeding in qualifying for the Euro finals. In the first leg, she scored the goal for the 1–1 equaliser with a penalty in the 90th minute.[26] In all, she scored six goals in qualifying, once again being her team's top scorer.[citation needed]
On 30 June 2022, Crnogorčević matched Lara Dickenmann's national cap record with her 135th international match in the 4–0 defeat in the European Championship preparatory game against England.[27] At the European Championship in 2022, she played in all three group games in the starting line-up. Switzerland was eliminated after the preliminary round.[citation needed]
