Everything looks perfect from the outside: good atmosphere in the team, sporting success, thousands of followers on social media. But there are also unsightly sides in the life of the DFB women.
It is not only fouls or controversial referee decisions that professional players sometimes get out of step. It is also the struggle for more visibility in women’s football – without getting into the center of sexual harassment.
In this context, the former national player and today’s TV expert Julia Šimić remembers a situation from her active career: “I had some experience with a stalker,” she reveals in an interview with T-online. It was, as she says, “never so bad that I had to go to the police. But once it was about to come because it also appeared in Milan.” From 2020 to 2021, Šimić played in the Italian metropolis at AC Milan.
Men are also affected by crossing border in football, but as a woman it is different “and not to compare because you are physically the weaker gender,” continued the 36-year-old.
Excessive behavior towards women in football is not an isolated case. Two examples: According to media reports, the Sambian national coach Bruce Mwape took the breasts during the Women’s World Cup 2023. And the former Spanish football association president Luis Rubiales kissed the player Jennifer Hermoso at the award ceremony after the World Cup title two years ago without being asked.
Experience like this is no exception. Sexual harassment is everyday life for many players. It is a structural and social problem that has intensified by social networks – and has become the topic in the German national team of women. DFB captain Giulia Gwinn and teammate Lena Oberdorf have had her experiences with crossing border and divided them publicly.
Gwinn, who contracted a serious knee injury in the European Championship opening against Poland (2: 0), explained in her recently published book “Write Your Own Story”: “I get nude pictures of men again and again. So-called ‘Dickpics’, on which their genitals can be seen.” The pictures would come from anonymous accounts and would get into Instagram every few days. Gwinn’s reaction: she deletes, reports and blocks. “It’s just a tasteless harassment,” she writes.
Oberdorf caused a sensation at the beginning of the year with an anecdote on the subject of sexual harassment. The player of FC Bayern, who was not yet fit enough for the European Championship, discussed in her podcast “Popcorn & Panenka” with co-moderator Rena Schwabl, why women get up faster after fouls-and revealed a theory.
“Because then a lot of people ranks when you are lying,” said Oberdorf. She described a concrete scene that she particularly disturbed: “I once had a video because there was a guy in Wolfsburg on the stands who ran his cell phone when the girls stretched.” Oberdorf is exposed to several looks on the field, including from tensioners, and explained: “I sometimes think when I lie on the floor: this is an unfavorable position.”
The 23-year-old describes an obviously real and stressful experience for her. Because, as definite, sexual harassment is every form of undesirable approach – verbal, non -verbal or physical. The incidents in football are not only limited to the field.