67 percent of female soccer players study in the first and second Bundesliga

According to a scientific study by ex-national player Lena Lotzen, most of the female soccer players in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga study or work. As part of her master’s thesis at the IST University of Management in Düsseldorf, the 28-year-old examined the dual career paths of 200 players.

Around 42 percent of the players surveyed have a job in addition to football and, in some cases, parallel to school or an apprenticeship or university degree. The average weekly working time is over 21 hours.

“If you deduct the roughly 20 percent of schoolgirls, then it becomes apparent that just eight percent of female soccer players are not pursuing any training or studies and also do not have a degree yet,” explained Lotzen’s supervising sports economics and sports sociology professor Peter Ehnold on the online Survey between November 2021 and January 2022.

67 percent are completing a degree or have already completed one. The remaining 25 percent are in training or have successfully completed it. “The willingness to train is therefore much higher than among male footballers,” says Ehnold.

With her analysis, Lotzen hopes to “further sensitize young players in particular to the topic, but above all to bring the problem even more into the focus of associations and clubs”. Their investigation also shows that clubs, associations and the career advisors of the Olympic bases hardly play a role in advising female soccer players.

At the European Championships in England in July, national player Lina Magull demanded a basic salary for players in the 1st and 2nd leagues. National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg had also joined the demand. Lotzen played 25 international matches between 2012 and 2015, she played in the Bundesliga for FC Bayern Munich and SC Freiburg. After tearing her third cruciate ligament, she ended her career at 1. FC Köln in 2021. (dpa)