Lea Schüller is one of Germany’s best female footballers. Now the striker is criticising top German clubs like Borussia Dortmund.
National striker Lea Schüller of Bayern Munich has become the first professional female footballer to make it onto the cover of the fashion magazine Vogue Germany. The 25-year-old goal scorer was in front of the camera for the April issue “Rethink”, which will be published on 28 March.
The magazine wants to make a statement with the European vice champion on the cover. “While everyone has heard the names of the national football players, the women are no less successful, on the contrary. It is sportswomen like Lea Schüller who stand for change and ensure that we also start to rethink here,” said Kerstin Weng, Head of Editorial Content at Vogue Germany.
In person, the native of Tönisvorst, who made her breakthrough at SGS Essen, had outed herself in the past as a fan of the men’s team of Borussia Dortmund. In Vogue, however, the 25-year-old now criticises top German clubs like Borussia Dortmund, which she feels do not consistently invest in women’s football. “You get the feeling that these teams were only founded because of pressure from the public. These clubs have women’s teams now, but they play in the district league and are hardly promoted,” says the striker.
It would be more than desirable if the big clubs that aim to be successful in the Bundesliga or even win championship titles would also set themselves similarly ambitious goals in women’s football
Lea Schüller
She demands: “It would be more than desirable if the big clubs that aim to play successfully in the Bundesliga or even win championship titles would also set themselves similarly ambitious goals in women’s football. And: Actually, the goal of having a good women’s team would be enough. “
Borussia Dortmund’s women’s team was founded for the 2020/21 season, and in its first season the team was promoted to the district league and won the district cup. Currently, the BVB women are undefeated in the Bezirksliga after 17 games – with a goal difference of 101:4. According to the BVB plan, they are supposed to go to the Bundesliga in 2027. There has also been a second team playing in the district league since this season.
Like BVB, Schalke also has women’s teams
District neighbour FC Schalke 04 also revived its women’s division for the 2020/21 season. Of the two teams, one also made it directly into the Bezirksliga and currently leads the table there with one defeat from 17 games.
Unlike BVB, however, the foundation was explicitly assigned to grassroots sport. Schalke made it clear from the start: women’s football at S04 is a hobby, a Bundesliga breakthrough is not envisaged. And the third current men’s Bundesliga team from the district? The women’s team of VfL Bochum currently plays in the regional league. It has existed since 2010 when the women’s football department of TuS Harpen joined the club and took over the playing rights of SG Wattenscheid 09.
On the perennial topics of professionalisation and equal pay, Germany’s Footballer of the Year 2022 points to the fact that earnings in the women’s Bundesliga are still too low for the most part: “Some players earn less from football than from their work. Then they also set their priorities differently.