- Five goals in six games in the Bundesliga, six goals in two games for the German national team this season – there is currently no way around Lea Schüller in German women’s football.
- The FC Bayern striker is only 23 years old, already a German champion and has a lot more plans for her career.
- In an interview with our editorial team, she explains why it makes no sense for her to follow Robert Lewandowski’s training plan, why she annoys kick-off times in women’s football and how she actually feels about gendering.
Lea Schüller is currently unstoppable. The FC Bayern striker’s record is unparalleled and also feeds the ambitions of the German national team. Ambitions that Schüller naturally shares. Because just because she has already won the German championship once, her thirst for the title is far from satisfied. That becomes clear in the interview.
Ms. Schüler, you had your 150th Bundesliga game at the weekend, and you scored twice again – and that in the top game against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Why are you doing so outrageously well right now?
Lea Schüller: Yes why? Good question. (laughs) I think that I’ve arrived at Bayern since the last half of the season and that I’ve been able to improve in a lot of things. I was able to build up my fitness very well and have excellent teammates who make scoring goals much easier for me.
You even have your own hashtag # EsSchüllert – do you mind that it was copied from male footballers? Or is it more of an incentive when you obviously remind people of Gerd Müller and Thomas Müller?
I am of course aware that it was copied there, but I am honored that this hashtag was established for me. And I’m not annoyed that it comes from somewhere else. I just think it’s cool.
Is one of the two maybe even a kind of role model for you?
In general, I orient myself towards the best strikers, and of course Thomas Müller is one of them.
Schüller: I ran even less at the beginning
In the national team, too, things are going extremely well for you. After their four-pack, however, their team-mate Lena Oberdorf attested them a “classic striker’s disease”. You’d have to kick your ass a little to get the runs. Where do you see your greatest potential for improvement?
She’s right there. I definitely have a storm disease. But I’ve already improved myself there. I would argue that in the beginning I ran even less than I do now. (laughs) Now I also work a lot more backwards, and then you immediately notice that you get better into the game, that you create more opportunities. Otherwise, however, I also believe that I’m more of the forward type who is fast and runs deep. I still want to work on securing and dropping the balls more often.
Updated on September 22, 2021, 10:05 a.m.
The German soccer players need the second half to achieve their second victory in the World Cup against outsiders Serbia. One player stands out. © ProSiebenSat.1
And what heights should it go for you? What are your personal goals?
My goal is to become the top scorer in the Bundesliga one day. I would also like to win the trophy with the team. And just because I have now won the championship with Bayern doesn’t mean that it’s no longer a goal for me. And of course I want to win titles with the national team.
Will this hunger for the title also instilled into the women’s team at FC Bayern, the Bayern DNA, if you will?
I don’t think that has anything to do with FC Bayern. If you know that you have a very good team, then you have high ambitions. Of course you can see at FC Bayern that the men are totally successful, and accordingly, of course, you want to follow suit in the women’s field.
You just missed the title of “Footballer of the Year” – did that annoy you?
Yes, yes. Of course that annoyed me. But I also found it understandable because I didn’t perform that well at Bayern in the first six months. So I’m glad I made it into the top two. That is a very big honor.
Post-menstrual training
You have worked a lot on your fitness: is the training plan also geared towards men, for example Robert Lewandowski?
No not at all. We have no access at all. The male and female bodies are very different, and so it makes no sense at all. You don’t look at anything there. We also train on the Bayern campus and the men on Säbener Straße, so not at the same training site.
In the meantime, there are supposed to be clubs, such as Chelsea FC, which align the players’ training plans with their menstrual cycles.
Yes, that’s the way it is here too. At the beginning of the period, players are often taken out and then train individually for a day.
That was certainly practiced quite differently ten years ago.
Yes, sure. It wasn’t done in Essen either, but I think it’s very useful.
Schüller: “Who should be watching?”
There is more and more women’s football on German television. At the weekend, 1.53 million people saw Bayern against Hoffenheim in the first. How satisfying is it that the media attention to women’s football is just increasing?
We are of course honored that more people are watching the games. I think it depends a lot on when the games are. Now we play with the national team again on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. (on October 26, World Cup qualifier Germany – Israel, editor’s note). Who should watch? That makes it difficult for us. It would be nice if it continued in the other direction. The Bundesliga and Magenta (Telekom’s streaming platform, editor’s note) have already made sure that the games are kicked off on different days at different times so that more people can and hopefully want to watch.
The popularity of men’s football has suffered in the corona crisis. Is this now the chance for women’s football to fill this gap?
Maybe. That may be. I would, however, differentiate between women’s and men’s football. It is different because women have different physical conditions than men. It’s always a different game. But of course it’s football too, and maybe people want to watch other football too. Or they generally don’t feel like playing football anymore. That’s possible too, of course. That’s why I wouldn’t commit myself now. But I would be happy if people switch to women’s football.
The list of points of criticism among men is long: commercialization, wage explosion, unbelievable prices on the transfer market, corruption, no club identification – all problems that women’s football does not know, or only in a weakened form. Is women’s football the more honest football?
Maybe that too. And women’s football, for example, is not like men’s football when it comes to the theatrics on the pitch. (laughs)
Schüller: “Wouldn’t want to swap”
Are there aspects of the life of male football professionals that you definitely wouldn’t want to swap with?
I definitely don’t want to be recognized on the street all the time. For us it is nice when someone recognizes us. That’s a kind of appreciation. Most of the time, it’s a young girl who recognizes you. But I wouldn’t necessarily want to swap with the fact that then I can no longer walk through the city and that everyone recognizes me.
And what privileges would you like to see in men?
Oh yeah, I think everyone wants to make a lot of money. Of course I would also like to earn what I know how many millions a year. But it’s just not like that.
From a purely pragmatic point of view, however, it makes a lot of sense, as you do now, to study in addition to football and to prepare for a life after your career.
Totally. Only football, that also does something to the head. And I think that also shapes the expectations of many fans: He doesn’t do anything other than football, he has to be able to do it perfectly. It’s good for me that I have something else that I can concentrate on and switch off from football from time to time.
Social media is a big topic in football. While your male counterparts probably all have social media managers, you run your Instagram channel yourself – how important is it for you to be visible on these platforms too? And how do you approach it for yourself?
Yes, it’s very important, but I’m really bad at it. (laughs) I should actually use that a lot more, but I often just don’t feel like posting anything. Still, I see it as an opportunity and try to improve myself there.
“I find gender rather exhausting”
Gender is a topic that is discussed in detail, especially on social media. Now that is actually not a topic that should be expected in a football talk, but I recently stumbled upon while researching that the VfL Wolfsburg homepage refers to the players in the male form. So Almuth Schult as a goalkeeper, for example. Is that something that would bother you?
No, not at all. I would also find it rather exhausting if I had to pay attention to it all the time. I don’t think it’s a bad thing when we use the masculine form from time to time. I grew up in football, I’ve been playing for ages. It does not bother me. I’m also not in this subject at all. But the fact that Wolfsburg says goalkeeper instead of goalkeeper could of course be adjusted on the homepage. Although I’m not at all sure whether it says “striker” on our side.
The term “attack” is used in a completely gender-neutral manner.
Yes, as I said, I wouldn’t care. But of course you can pay attention to it on a homepage.
Next year is the European Women’s Championship in England – what are your plans for the tournament?
Our goal is, of course, to go far. We don’t want to line up to take a look. Our goal is to be in the final. We have a lot of potential in the team, we are a very young team, we can still learn a lot and have yet to find each other. But we have very good players, so we have to aim to win titles. It will then be seen whether we can do that now at the European Championships or maybe later at the World Cup.
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