Melanie Leupolz is doing pioneering work these days. Not because the midfielder is traveling to the women’s World Cup – the German selection is the second most successful women’s team in the world behind the USA. But because she doesn’t come alone. Because Leupolz brings her nine-month-old son with her. A rarity in (female) professional sports.
This makes it part of a short series. Today’s national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg gave birth to her daughter Dina in 1993. As the first German professional footballer and mother, she was not able to take them to tournaments at the time.
Second was goalkeeper Almuth Schult, who traveled to England in 2022 as a mother of twins for the European Women’s Championship. A novelty, unlike Voss-Tecklenburg’s times, the DFB allows the national player to take her twins with her.
National coach Voss-Tecklenburg supports this to the best of her ability, as she told ZDF shortly before leaving for this year’s World Cup in Australia: “It is a huge added value for us women in sport not to have to end our careers, but to have our children with us with the support of the DFB I know what it’s like not having the kid with you at tournaments.”
So now Melanie Leupolz.
Her son was not born until autumn 2022. In January, the 29-year-old was back on the pitch at her hometown club, Chelsea. This was only possible because the club made close support and advice possible, including a pelvic floor trainer. Not a matter of course for female professionals. “When I announced that I was pregnant, I got a lot of comments like: ‘Well then your career is over,'” she tells tennis pro Andrea Petkovic in a ZDF report.
But Chelsea coach Emma Hayes – herself a mom – encouraged Leupolz: “My trainer always said that I would come back stronger from pregnancy. And in fact I am more relaxed, a certain lightness,” she says in an interview with the “Bild am Sunday”.
It comes as Hayes prophesied. Up to two weeks before and two weeks after the birth, she did sports, Leupolz said a few days ago the “Bild am Sonntag”: “I can run indefinitely, probably because I’ve experienced so much hardship, the body becomes more resistant to it stress and exertion.”
But it is also true that professional athletes can hardly get pregnant without the support of the club. German former leaders like Fatmire “Lira” Alushi or Celia Sasic ended their careers when children were on the way or planned.
In 2021, the Olympique Lyon club stopped paying its then player Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir after she disclosed her pregnancy and was released from work by a doctor. Without prior notice. “It should have been the happiest moment of my entire life,” wrote the Icelandic international soccer player in her own article on The Players Tribune in January. “All I wanted was to enjoy my pregnancy and then work my ass off to come back and help my team and the club.”
Instead, she sued for her salary. After months of litigation, she was right – and now plays for Juventus Turin.
Melanie Leupolz exchanged views with Gunnarsdóttir in the run-up to the World Cup, she told ZDF. There are few role models for active female players who are also mothers. That’s why Leupolz wants to be a role model for other players, to show that it’s possible.
“I knew that it was a risk to get pregnant during your career, so I put everything at risk,” she said in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag”. “But I was always confident that I could make it.”
She did it. These days she is preparing for the World Championships in Wyong, the team’s location. It starts on July 20th and takes place in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the child, a nanny also travels to support the player. “The DFB pays for the travel and accommodation. It wouldn’t be possible without them. I want to be a footballer and be able to concentrate. It’s difficult to think like: ‘Has the little one been properly rubbed with sunscreen?'”
The whole team is looking forward to that, confirms trainer Martina Voss-Tecklenburg in advance. She wants to do everything to support her player: “Many players are already looking forward to being childminders all day long and having fun with the little man. 23 babysitters plus Grandma Martina.”
Sources: “Bild am Sonntag”, ZDF, ZDF Reportage, The Players Tribune, dfb.de
