World attendance records in Barcelona, well-filled stadiums in Wolfsburg or Munich and an upcoming European Championship in England with the prospect of full stands with tens of thousands of fans – women’s football is booming.
The joy about the good timing is particularly great in California, because that’s where the next big project is about to start: Angel City FC. The future employer of national goalkeeper Almuth Schult, who is moving from VfL Wolfsburg to the USA after the European Championship, will start his first season in the NWSL professional league on Friday evening (local time) with a home game in front of the Los Angeles skyline.
The team, which was founded and financed mostly by women, has already sold 15,000 season tickets, more than some men’s teams from Major League Soccer. The club can also count on the support of celebs, who are welcome on every red carpet in Hollywood. Actress Natalie Portman is one of the three founders and largely responsible for the entire project. Her colleagues Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Garner and Eva Longoria are among the 40 investors currently listed on the homepage, as are sports greats Lindsey Vonn and Candace Parker. Also present: Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach and twelve other former US national players.
“Women’s football has been seen as a risk so far. Now it’s more like this: If you invest, you get a lot back. A lot,” said sports director Eniola Aluko of the German Press Agency after the last group game in the Challenger Cup, a Preparation used cup competition of the NWSL teams.
“Humility and ambition can coexist”
Sunday night’s 1-0 win over Portland Thorns FC was not just the team’s first win in a competitive game, it was much more. “Isn’t that a great message for the league? Angel City have beaten Portland,” exclaimed co-founder Julie Uhrman euphorically after happily hugging Aluko’s neck. After all, Portland was the best team in the past main round. “This feels so much better than the alternatives. Much better.” Four of the five previous group games were lost, plus a 1-1 draw.
The victory was “huge” for the euphoria and self-confidence in the team, said Aluko. “It’s extremely important, very important.” She formulated her expectations for the first season as follows: “You go into every game to win. But many of the other teams have been playing together for ten years, have built something up for ten years, signed players.” Because you don’t have to queue up promotion after promotion until you reach the first division like in Europe, but buy yourself into the US system as a new team, the team is new in the truest sense of the word. However: “Humility and ambition can coexist.”
Because even if Angel City wants to do a lot differently and obliges sponsors, for example, to invest ten percent of their commitment in projects for the local public: In a city like Los Angeles with two football teams in the NFL, two basketball teams in the NBA , two representatives in Major League Baseball and, in addition to the regional college teams, two football teams in Major League Soccer, a new team can only assert itself in the public eye if it is successful.
Aluko on Schult: “Need players like her”
“Angel City is trying to build something that has more meaning than just football. But for that to work, you also have to have a good football team. It has to exist together,” said Aluko. “We have to be a brand that helps and understands the community – but we also have to make sure we bring in players who will take us to the next level, like Almuth.”
Schult is still observing developments over the next two to three months from afar and does not want to comment further on the reasons for VfL Wolfsburg’s move to the USA before the end of the season in Europe. In the championship and in the DFB Cup, the Wolves are favorites, but in the Champions League they need a sensation in the second leg against FC Barcelona on Saturday (6 p.m.) after the 1:5 in the first leg.
The anticipation in Los Angeles for the national player is already palpable. “She’s great. We need players like her who immediately have the respect of the dressing room. She’s won everything: Olympics, Champions League, European Championships,” said Aluko. Ideally, Schult can also call herself American Champion before the end of her one-year contract with the option of another season in the NWSL.