Goalkeeper Almuth Schult has celebrated her comeback in the German national soccer team after a break of more than three years. The 8-0 victory of the DFB team in the final World Cup qualifier in Bulgaria was almost irrelevant given the 31-year-old’s return to the German goal.
After the one-sided game on Tuesday evening, Schult sat like a heap of misery on the substitutes’ bench at the Lokomotiv stadium in Plovdiv next to goalkeeping coach Michael Fuchs. The keeper kept wiping her face with a towel and not just the sweat from her forehead. Tears ran down the cheeks of the longtime keeper of VfL Wolfsburg.
Almost unemployed at the comeback
After a game in which the Olympic champion was unemployed with the exception of a long-range shot by Dimitra Ivanova, which she easily saved (43rd), the past three years ran before her inner eye. After the birth of her twins in April 2020 and the subsequent baby break, the 31-year-old fought her way back onto the pitch, but was repeatedly slowed down by injuries. While she managed to return to the goal as number one for the “wolves”, Merle Frohms outranked her in the DFB goal.
A circumstance with which the extremely ambitious keeper quietly came to terms, because she is an impeccable sportswoman and team player. But how much she had longed for the comeback between the German posts was now shown after the game in the concrete bowl filled with only 200 spectators to Plovdiv.
Schult: “I had to open a lot of doors”
“I’m very grateful that my family made it possible for me. It was always my goal. Probably nobody can imagine what it feels like who hasn’t fought back into competitive sport. I had to open a lot of doors,” said Schult in the ARD interview with a brittle voice and shed many tears.
The goalkeeper, who hails from Dannenberg (Elbe) in Lower Saxony, made no secret of how much the loss of a regular place in the German side is nagging at her.
“It’s even worse as a goalkeeper. You can’t even get in for 14 minutes. When you lose your place, it’s not easy to get it back. It was a tough time for a large part, even though it was club level and I enjoy football,” explained Schult.
In an unusual supporting role at the European Championships in England
After winning the double, the goalkeeper said goodbye to Angel City FC in the USA after nine years in Wolfsburg. But before she moved into her four walls in Los Angeles, the European Championships in England were still on the agenda. The continental title fights turned into a roaring football festival with an intoxicating German team that was only stopped by the hosts in the final.
But Schult didn’t play a second on the island – and thus only a supporting role. Bitter for the 2013 European champion and 2016 Olympic champion, who had played 64 times for the national team before her baby break.
Schult is proud to be the mother of twins
Now, 1165 days after their last assignment for the DFB selection, the comeback followed. For Schult himself, it was not only of great personal value. “I don’t know the statistics. But I think I’m the first mother of twins to play for the national team. And there haven’t been that many mothers who’ve played actively for the national team in the last 20 years anyway. I hope there will be many more in the coming decades,” said the 31-year-old.
Family reunification in the US is imminent
She is undoubtedly a role model for other female footballers who want to combine family and the professional practice of their sport in the future. Schult managed this balancing act – until now. It remains to be seen whether this will also be the case in the future. Because her husband and the twins will now come to the USA.
“It will be a completely different thing in the big world without the support of the big family, without which it would not have been possible in the last three years,” said Schult: “Now we as a family are on our own.”
World Cup in Australia and New Zealand as a longing goal
For the long-time Wolfsburg native, the new phase of life in distant California is only just beginning with family reunification. Her husband and children will give Schult support and strength, which she can also use in sport. To date, the 31-year-old has not played for Angel City FC in the National Women’s Soccer League.
If the goalkeeper is unable to change her current status, her participation in next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand may be in jeopardy.
“First of all, I have to manage in the USA that I play games and stay healthy. And everything around that has to fit,” said Schult. So she will have to keep fighting to achieve her dreams. But she has enough experience in that…
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Sports current | 06.09.2022 | 7:17 p.m
