National goalkeeper Merle Frohms has also replaced Almuth Schult at VfL Wolfsburg. The fact that after the EM hype, spectators came in droves to the Bundesliga, “we deserved it with high-quality games,” said the Vice-European Champion.
It was one of those days to enjoy – and you could see that by looking at Merle Frohms. The eternal adversary Bayern Munich was beaten 2-1 in the top game of the women’s Bundesliga, held on to the victory despite the “unnecessarily exciting” final phase and finally celebrated enthusiastically from the large crowd in the Wolfsburg Arena. “We deserved it,” said the European runners-up at the NDR Sportclub, who, after a few detours, is number one in the national team and since this season also in VfL Wolfsburg.
Victory against Bayern in front of a big crowd
“We have confirmed that it is worth coming to our stadium,” says the 27-year-old, and the satisfaction that the EM hype has not evaporated is written all over her face. The VfL women played in front of more than 20,000 spectators for the first time in the championship in the stadium, which is usually only used by coach Nico Kovac’s “Wolves”. Exactly 21,287 fans came – the Bundesliga record from the game between Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Bayern (23,200) was missed, but it has been shown that the spectators are not only coming because of the EM boom, says Frohms, “but also because we provide quality games”.
Kellermann on the TV contract: “The jump height was not in line with the market”
“But we have to keep at it and do advertising,” warns top scorer Alexandra Popp and immediately gets support from her team-mate: “We have to perform well on the pitch; and then it’s up to the clubs and the league to create the appropriate framework. ” A new TV contract has already been sealed. From the 2023/24 season, the income of the twelve clubs will increase 16-fold to 5.175 million euros per year. It was a great result economically and in terms of visibility, but he was far from being celebrated for it, said Wolfsburg’s sporting director Ralf Kellermann on NDR, because: “The jump height was really no longer in line with the market.”
The women’s Bundesliga, whose clubs still have to agree on the distribution key, ranks third among the top leagues behind the English Women’s Super League (nine million euros per year) and the Spanish league (eight million euros). But of course the contract doesn’t come close to being compared to the men’s Bundesliga, which is worth 930 million euros – 180 times as much.
Little pleasure in Monday games
There is also a toad to swallow: In the future there will be a Monday game at 7.30 p.m. on free TV, although this was abolished for the men after numerous protests – especially from the fans. “It’s not just about the spectators,” said Almuth Schult, who worked as an expert for ARD during the World Cup in Qatar before returning to Los Angeles in the spring for Angel City FC in the American National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). will play. “We have the problem in the Bundesliga that many players still have to work alongside football.”
Goalkeeper because of the colorful jerseys
Merle Frohms is not one of them. She can live from her sport at an estimated 40,000 euros per year, albeit modestly compared to the men. That she would one day become a soccer player was actually already certain when she could just walk. “We played football in the garden every free minute,” says brother Lasse, and doesn’t hide the fact that his little sister always wanted to be right in the middle. “But she had to go in goal; I was allowed to shoot at it.” Merle Frohms started her career at Fortuna Celle when she was five. Of course in goal. “The field players had such boring jerseys that the goalkeeper was all colourful. I thought that was so beautiful and wanted to wear it.”
And she was already in the box. Two boys lost out to the only player in the club, remembers their first coach, Heinrich Fuchs. It stayed that way until 2011, even in the district league she only played with boys. Then Kellermann, who was still the coach of VfL Wolfsburg at the time, got in touch and brought the 16-year-old to the Bundesliga team. “She was athletic and had a very good jumping ability. Everything was right.”
Via detours back to Wolfsburg
If Almuth Schult hadn’t been an insurmountable obstacle. Although Frohms was also the number two DFB Cup winner, German champion and Champions League winner, she was almost never allowed to play. “Should it stay like this forever?” asked the then 23-year-old and, although she felt very comfortable in the Auto-Stadt, just a few kilometers away from her birthplace Celle, switched to VfL in 2018 after seven years SC Freiburg and two years later to Eintracht Frankfurt. There she developed into a top goalkeeper, who also studies business administration remotely and can also show that she has a coaching license.
Kellermann “deeply impressed”
In the national team, she finally used Schult’s maternity leave and distinguished herself through outstanding performances, not only at the European Championships, as number one in the team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. “I had the full backing of the coaching team and of course I wanted to give back the trust,” she describes her motivation, in which fear of failure plays no part. “Almuth Schult was always present,” says Kellermann. “Many were just waiting for Merle to make a mistake. I was deeply impressed by how she withstood this mental pressure.”
Frohms: “Also attack internationally”
It was already clear before her glorious European Championship that she would replace Schult in the Wolfsburg goal this season. Working with a mental trainer helped her “stay with me,” she says, as a recipe for success, because “I can only influence what is in my power,” says Frohms, who is considered to be rather reserved and introverted. “But she knows exactly what she wants,” says Kellermann. The treble of cup, championship and Champions League, for example: “We want to build on last year’s double,” she says, “and also attack internationally.”
This topic in the program:
sports club | 10/23/2022 | 10:50 p.m
