Almost eight months after the birth of her third child, former national goalkeeper Almuth Schult has joined a team again: On Friday, Hamburger SV announced the signing of the 66-time national player. Schult could help HSV achieve promotion to the Bundesliga. New FIFA regulations for mothers make their comeback during the season possible.
It’s a good two-hour drive between the small village in Wendland, where Almuth Schult lives with her family, and the HSV training ground in Norderstedt, north of Hamburg. A long journey that the 33-year-old is only too happy to take on. “I’m extremely happy that I’m getting the chance to make a comeback, that HSV is trusting me,” Schult told NDR. “I didn’t even expect it to work this season.”
She has signed with the fourth-place team in the 2nd Bundesliga until the end of the season and will continue to work as an expert and co-commentator for ARD. “I know that as a TV expert it’s a great privilege to be close to the action. But being on the pitch yourself is something completely different. It’s such a great pleasure for me just to train, to hold the ball again, to joke with teammates and to simply be on the pitch together.”
The path to the comeback: “A lot of self-organization”
Schult had already made a comeback on the pitch after the birth of her twins in April 2020, and in the summer of 2022 she celebrated her sixth championship title as number one with VfL Wolfsburg. She then left the top club and moved to Angel City FC in the USA. The guest appearance there was followed by the pregnancy and the birth of her son last August.
“This time the path was completely different than after the birth of the twins, when I was under contract with VfL. This time I had to organize a lot of things myself. At first I started training again easily and wrote my own plans for it, my studies Sports science was of course helpful,” says the Olympic champion with a smile. “I used the bonus for the gold medal from Rio 2016 to set up my own weight room at home in Wendland. This was once again the basis for me getting fit again.”
Support from VfL, family and friends
VfL Wolfsburg, for whom Schult played for nine years, also supported her. “I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to train with the VfL second team since the beginning of the year. These sessions were extremely important in order to be able to get back into the game.”
Schult drove the 80-kilometer route to the Mittelland Canal three to four times a week. Often there: her youngest son. “Without my family and friends – many of them from football – I wouldn’t have been able to work on my comeback. When I was training in Wolfsburg, former teammates also looked after my youngest son. Great support.”
While VfL’s second team is in second-to-last place in the 2nd Bundesliga, their new club has a good chance of being promoted to the Bundesliga. The team is currently in fourth place, although league leader Andernach has already announced that it will forego a possible promotion. This means that Meppen and Turbine Potsdam, who are tied on points and are in second place, one point ahead of HSV, are the toughest competition.
“Almuth is a seasoned personality and has an enormous wealth of experience that she can bring to our team,” said Catharina Schimpf, coordinator of women’s football at HSV. “Our young players will also benefit from her style and the calm that she exudes. We are absolutely convinced that Almuth will help us on and off the pitch.”
Return to HSV
Schult had already moved to Hamburg almost 17 years ago. As a 16-year-old, she came to the Hanseatic city from her hometown club Gartow.
However, she only stayed for a year and then started carefully building a world career: via the regional league in Magdeburg she moved to Bad Neuenahr in the Bundesliga and in 2013 to VfL Wolfsburg. A year later, Schult won the Champions League with the club and was named world goalkeeper.
Almuth Schult returns to her old place of work.
After many titles and 66 international matches, she is now returning. “Even after I left Hamburg, I always had the club in mind. The fact that the women’s Bundesliga team was deregistered in 2012 was certainly the lowest point. It’s nice that there is now a completely different level of acceptance and support, that the ambitions are great . I also think the support from the fans is remarkable.”
“The club, the players and I also have plans for this season – so I’m looking forward to it finally getting started.”
—Almuth Schult
Steffen Baumgart, coach of the men’s second division team, welcomes Schult’s commitment: “It shows that HSV is not only attractive in the men’s area and that the club wants to build something in all areas.”
Comeback during the season thanks to new FIFA regulations
It wasn’t easy to find a club, reported Schult. “Unfortunately, there are still a lot of prejudices against mothers in European football. Added to that is my goalkeeper position, there are only a few jobs and changes don’t happen very often during the season.”
So far, very few players in Germany become mothers during their careers. Last week, Schult’s former teammate Tabea Sellner announced the birth of a child, and the striker also wants to return to the pitch.
The fact that Schult is allowed to join a club during the second half of the season is due to the innovations decided by FIFA in 2020: Anyone returning from maternity leave will also be entitled to play outside of the transfer periods. At that time, the regulations came about largely through the efforts of the footballers’ union FIFPro.
Schult is looking forward to his first mission
“Back then, I even worked on FIFPro’s recommendations to FIFA. And now, as far as I know, I’m the first player to benefit from it in European football – that’s a nice story,” says Schult.
It is not yet clear when she will make her debut in the HSV jersey in a league game. But she is already looking forward to her first mission. “My soon-to-be four-year-old twins ask from time to time: ‘Mom, when are you going to play football again?’ It’s nice that they can now consciously experience me on the pitch,” said Almuth Schult – the woman who wants to look after the goal and the children.
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Sports current | April 11, 2024 | 12:17 p.m