Bundesliga's only mom: Football can do more to help
Hecko Flores
December 4, 2020
Wolfsburg's Almuth Schult is the only current Bundesliga player who is a mother. She told DW that, despite Friday's proposed reforms from FIFA, support and infrastructure for mums leaves plenty to be desired.
Image: picture-alliance/Gladys Chai von der Laage
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It's been almost a year and a half since Almuth Schult last played in a competitive match.
A shoulder surgery after the 2019 World Cup in France forced the Wolfsburg and Germany goalkeeper to the sidelines. But her world was turned upside down as her career hiatus became longer than originally anticipated.
Schult became pregnant and gave birth to twins in April 2020, becoming the only player in Germany's top flight to have children.
"It's new territory," Schult tells DW. "There's no perfect example in the women's Bundesliga so we cannot ring a club and ask 'How did you do that with training? How did you integrate this or that? How did you make it work with the children and away games.' We still need to figure it all out."
'An uphill battle'
The 29-year-old has already won the Champions League as well as five Bundesliga titles and six German cups at club level. She has also won Olympic gold and the Euros with Germany. But she is still far from calling it quits on her career. Schult has returned to first-team training with Wolfsburg and is eyeing a comeback this season.
"There are few top female athletes that have children," she said. "It's difficult. After taking a year off from your career you need to fight to get back into it. It's hard work and there's still a long way to go but I love my job so there was never a question about returning."
Almuth Schult is hoping to win back her place at WolfsburgImage: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
While regaining match fitness has been one of Schult's biggest challenges, balancing motherhood and her career as a professional footballer has proven to be an uphill battle.
"We have a very unpredictable job. We don't work Monday to Friday from 8 to 5. We can't suddenly take time off if something falls out of rhythm," said Schult.
Although the goalkeeper plays for one of the most successful and financially robust clubs in the women's game, Wolfsburg lacks a childcare support system. A 2017 report from FIFPRO, the global players' union, showed that only 3 percent of top division clubs worldwide offered creche facilities.
"I always felt that the club support my decision,” said Schult. "Of course, it would be easier for me if the club had an internal daycare center where players could leave their children to be taken care of during training. But that is not the case here."
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Choice between career and family for many
Schult relies heavily on her extended family as a support system to juggle football and having children. In Germany, female players' maternity rights are protected by law, but internationally that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Many players across the globe have long been forced to choose between their career and starting a family.
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FIFA announced on Friday that they had passed what they described as "landmark reforms" for female players and coaches. Football's international governing body plans to mandate at least 14 weeks of maternity leave paid at a minimum two-thirds of the employee's full salary as well as job protection measures and various other stipulations.
"It's a very good decision on a worldwide scale," said Schult. "But again, we have to ask ourselves: is maternity leave even the issue here or is it perhaps that players don't earn enough money to raise a child?"
"We're still a long way from having every female feel safe playing at the highest level in every country. But it's a step in the right direction and a sign that FIFA is finally taking things seriously."
No. 1 for club and country
While Schult is currently the only active player with children in the German Bundesliga, she is not alone on the world stage.
United States international and 2019 World Cup winner Alex Morgan signed for English side Tottenham in September, four months after giving birth to her first child. The striker played her first game at the beginning of November.
Alex Morgan is another big name player who is also a motherImage: Getty Images/J-P. Ksiazek
Her US teammate and Orlando Pride's Sydney Leroux Dwyer was also back in action for her club just three months and a day after giving birth to her second child.
Germany women's national team coach, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, is very familiar with her goalkeeper's situation. In 1994, Voss-Tecklenburg had a child at the height of her footballing career, becoming the first professional player in Germany to do so. She quickly made her comeback, reaching the 1995 World Cup final and winning the 1995 and 1997 Euros as a mother.
"She has asked me how I've been doing and told me about her own experience," said Schult. "We agreed that the most important thing is that we are all doing well – mom, kids and the whole family."
Football might no longer be highest on Schult's list of priorities but the goalkeeper could see herself as the one between the sticks at Euro 2022.
"I hope it's me but you never know what could happen until then," said Schult. "First I need to perform and play for my club again and then the rest can follow. My first goal is playing again in an official match with the club and see where we can go from there."
50 years of women's football in Germany
As incredible as it sounds today, women's football was once banned in Germany. Since October 31, 1970, when the DFB lifted the ban, Germany has become a leading nation in women's football. Here's a look back.
Image: picture alliance / Pressefoto Ulmer
Ignoring the ban
In 1955 the German football association (DFB) issued a ban on the country's football clubs forming women's teams. Football is "essentially alien to the nature of women," it said in a statement justifying the move. "In the battle for the ball, female grace disappears, body and soul inevitably suffer damage." This didn't stop determined women, like this team in Minden, from playing football anyway.
Image: Leonie Albig-Treffers/picture-alliance
Game on in the East
The DFB's ban on women's football only applied to West Germany. In East Germany, the women were free to play. However, in 1969 the SED, East Germany's ruling communist party, decides that only men's football would be funded and promoted as an elite sport. The East German women's national team would play just one game, losing to the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic 3-0 on May 9, 1990.
Image: FSU-Fotozentrum/picture-alliance
Discriminatory ban abolished
Fifteen years later, the DFB's opposition to women playing the beautiful game crumbled. Here legendary Bayern Munich and West Germany striker Gerd Müller (second from right) tosses the coin before officiating a July 1970 women's match to raise funds for the Deutsche Sporthilfe (German Sports Aid Foundation). On October 31, 1970, the DFB officially abolished the discriminatory ban imposed in 1955.
Image: Parschauer/dpa/picture-alliance
A first for Stuttgart's Neckarstadion
It wasn't long before women were playing on the same fields where only men had been allowed. Here, TSV Öschelbronn face Spielvereinigung Weil im Schönbuch in the first-ever women's match at Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart's home ground, the Neckarstadion. TSV Öschelbronn won the match 3-1.
Image: Michael Dick/picture-alliance
First woman to win German TV's 'Goal of the Month'
However, the DFB still refused to form a women's national team. "This was clearly a setback," remembers West German women's football legend Bärbel Wohlleben. "We were only allowed to play two halves of 30 minutes too." Her club, TuS Wörsstadt won the first official German women's title in 1974. Her goal in the final against DJK Eintracht Erle was voted "Goal of the Month" by viewers of ARD TV.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Bergisch-Gladbach: World champions!
SSG Bergisch Gladbach 09 soon emerge as the dominant team in West German women's football, winning nine national titles and three DFB Cup titles between 1977 and 1989. Not only that, but they also represent West Germany at an international invitational tournament in Taiwan, winning what was then seen as the unofficial women's world championship in 1981 and 1984.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Witschel
First match, easy victory
In 1982, the DFB finally gives up its opposition to the formation of a women's national team. On October 10, 1982 the West German women win their first-ever international 5-1 over Switzerland. SSG Bergisch Gladbach 09's Silvia Neid, who would go on to a successful spell as the head coach of the German women's national team, scores a brace.
Image: Sven Simon/picture-alliance
First official international title
In 1989 West Germany hosts the Women's European Championship. The West Germans beat Italy on penalties in the semifinal – the first women's game broadcast live on West German TV. They follow this up with a 4-1 victory over Norway in the final. Here, Julia Nardenbach, Petra Damm and Doris Fitschen (from left) celebrate with the trophy. Germany's women have since won seven more European titles.
Image: Sven Simon/picture-alliance
Siegen win first Bundesliga title
In 1990, the DFB established the Women's Bundesliga, just before reunification, making the 1990-91 season an all-West German affair. Two former East German teams joined the following season. The Bundesliga was split into north and south divisions, with the winners of each qualifying for the final. The first Women's Bundesliga champions were TSV Siegen. The two divisions were merged in 1997.
Image: Imago Images/Horstmüller
German and European domination: 1. FFC Frankfurt
The first European champions were 1. FFC Frankfurt. Here, Nia Künzer (center) is in action against Umea IK in the final of the 2002 UEFA Women's Cup. Frankfurt would go on to win two more in 2006 and 2008. By the time they won the 2015 title, the competition had been remained the Women's Champions League. They also dominated the Bundesliga, winning seven titles between 1999 and 2008.
Image: Frank May/dpaweb/dpa/picture-alliance
Germany's first World Cup champions
In 2003, the German women win their first World Cup title, beating Sweden 2-1 in the final played in Carson, California. Nia Künzer's header in the 98th minute was the Golden Goal that gave Germany the title. As was also the tradition for the men at the time, the world champions were welcomed home with a reception at Frankfurt City Hall, where they were feted by thousands of fans.
Image: Michael Probst/AP Photo/picture-alliance
Birgit Prinz: Three-time Women's Footballer of the Year
The Golden Boot winner with seven goals in six matches was superstar striker Birgit Prinz. She was named World Women's Footballer of the Year three times from 2003 to 2005 and was also named Germany's Women's Footballer of the year eight times. When she hung up her boots in 2011 she had 214 caps and 128 goals to her name, more than any other national team player – woman or man.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Another first
At the 2007 World Cup in China, Germany become the first team to defend a Women's World Cup title – and do so in impressive fashion! Their record is incredible: Six wins and a draw, 21 goals scored, none against. Led by their captain, Birgit Prinz, Germany beat Brazil 2-0 in the final. The bad news is that Germany's women have never reached a World Cup final since.
Image: picture alliance / Pressefoto Ulmer
First Champions League champions
Prior to the 2009-2010 season, the UEFA Women's Cup was rebranded the UEFA Women's Champions League. Another German team would lift the new Champions League trophy. 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam beat Olympique Lyon in a penalty shootout in the final in Getafe – becoming European Champions for a second time after 2005.
Image: Alberto Martin/dpa/picture-alliance
Striking Olympic gold in Rio
Two years after the German men won the 2014 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracana Stadium, the German women beat Sweden 2-1 in the final of the women's 2016 Olympic tournament to win the gold medal in the same venue. This was the first time that Germany had won gold, having had to settle for Olympic bronze medals in 2000, 2004, and 2008.
Image: Reuters/U. Marcelino
Silvia Neid: All there was to win
The 2016 Olympic gold medal in Rio is Silvia Neid's crowning achievement. Having won the European Championship three times as a player, Neid took over as national team coach in 2005. She would lead the team to the 2007 World Cup title, European Championship titles in 2009 and 2013 and finally to Olympic gold in 2016. Three times she was named FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football.
Image: Getty Images/F.Coffrini
Dominant Wolfsburg
Currently, the dominant team in German women's football are VfL Wolfsburg. Alexandra Popp (photo) and the rest of the women's Wolves have won the double in each of the past four years. Since 2013, the club has won the Bundesliga six times and the DFB Cup seven times. In addition, the club has won the Champions League twice (2013, 2014) and lost in three more finals.
