Kim Kulig takes over FC Basel – in the highest Swiss women’s soccer league, half of the responsible coaches are now women. A role model for Germany too?
She has won 33 German internationals, is currently assistant women’s coach at VfL Wolfsburg and will be on the sidelines for FCB women from next season: 33-year-old Kim Kulig will be the new head coach at FC Basel and has signed a two-year contract.
That was the press release from the top Swiss club, which once again underlines a trend in Swiss and especially in German women’s football: German coaches go via the small neighboring country if they want to advance their careers on the sidelines. There they find jobs in responsible positions. Much more so than in their home country.
Assistant coach in Wolfsburg – it didn’t go any further
After Kulig had to end her career due to injury in 2015, she became assistant coach and then head coach of the second team at 1. FFC Frankfurt. She coached a very young team there and was able to help many young talents step up to professional level and higher leagues.
But it didn’t go any further in the first position: in 2021 Kulig became assistant coach at the top German club and current Champions League finalist VfL Wolfsburg. With the “wolves” she managed to get the double last year. And now? Because there was no head coach position in Germany, Kim Kulig, who has the UEFA Pro license, took the step as head coach to the Rheinknie in the summer.
Swiss women’s football is enjoying increased attention
In Swiss women’s football, Servette, FC Zurich and FC Basel have always fought for the championship title in recent years. Who makes it this year is still completely unclear. In Switzerland, after a league main round, a knockout system is played: From a quarter-final, the best eight teams play out the two finalists in return games, which determine the Swiss women’s champion in a pure final game.
FC Basel – the next club from Kulig – meets Grasshopper Zurich in the quarter-finals as sixth-placed in the main round. An experienced German trainer has also been at the helm there since last summer: Anne Pochert. In addition to the excellent general conditions in Switzerland, the German enjoys above all the increased attention to her work.
Anne Pochert – from the shadows in Jena to the limelight in Zurich
After she was relegated from the Bundesliga with Jena last season, almost in camera, she is the focus of attention at GC. The German specialist in Zurich is expected to win nothing less than the Swiss championship and entry into the Champions League, at least in the medium term.
This is an exciting task, especially because Swiss women’s football has set out to leave the niche of quasi-insignificance. Although almost all players in the first division still have two tracks between sport and work, there are hardly any full professionals.
Quantum leaps in the Swiss league
But the 1st league has developed enormously recently: there is a main sponsor with an insurance company, and the Swiss TV broadcaster SRG SSR broadcasts all games either in live stream or on linear TV. Tatjana Haenni, director of women’s football at the Swiss Football Association (Sfv) until December last year, thinks: “The elite league has made quantum leaps in recent years. There are more players with non-amateur contracts in the clubs than ever before and there have been more games than ever in the stadiums of Super League clubs.”
Pochert does not say it directly, but it is clear that she did not see herself and her expertise appreciated enough in her home country. A total of two head coach posts are occupied by women in the twelve women’s Bundesliga clubs in Germany. In Switzerland, five of the ten top division teams have women in charge on the bench. “That’s nice for Swiss women’s football”says Pochert.
Switzerland – “the signs of the times recognized”
But she also thinks that this discrepancy does not necessarily speak for German women’s football. “I think that in Switzerland, unlike in Germany, the signs of the times have already been recognized. It is an important step to have the courage to give a woman a chance in this position.”
In addition to Pochert, three other German coaches are currently using the spirit of optimism in Switzerland to use the top league there as a kind of springboard for even higher tasks.
Grings leads the Swiss national team to the World Cup
Former Leverkusen assistant coach Jaqueline Dünker sits on the bench at current second-placed FC Zurich, the women at FC Basel are currently still being coached by Katja Greulich from Leipzig and Young Boys Bern relies on the expertise of Imke Wübbenhorst, who played at BV Cloppenburg in 2018 became known as the first female coach of a male premier league team. Not to be forgotten: Inka Grings, a former German national player, is in charge of the Swiss women’s national team, which is taking part in the World Cup finals in New Zealand and Australia this summer.
Switzerland coach Inka Grings
For Pochert, the female occupation of a coaching position brings with it a decisive advantage in addition to the technical expertise: “You can not only see the quality of the work, but also that women bring a different empathy with them when they work with players and young talents.” She wants to prove that with her work at the Grasshoppers. Kim Kulig has plans for something similar with her team from FC Basel.