From the EM stage to Hollywood: Almuth Schult.
Foto: imago/Beautiful Sports
Almuth Schult can be happy. Apparently, the German goalkeeper is eagerly awaited at US club Angel City FC, otherwise a German flag wouldn’t be flying in the stands of her future employer. Co-founder Kara Northman presented these images to high-profile guests at a Uefa panel in London last weekend ahead of the final of the Women’s Championship between England and Germany. What is better suited to the global promotion of women’s football than this Hollywood-ready pioneering project, of which club president Julie Uhrman says: “We want to entertain the world.” The statements by the financier Nortman sounded more like she wanted to change the world on posh Grosvenor Square.
Schult, who is committed to a variety of things, has always been concerned with more equality. As a substitute goalkeeper, it was not proper to give lengthy interviews before and during a tournament; In addition to her contributions as a columnist, no statements were heard from the 31-year-old in England. In terms of sport, Schult has a lot to do in Los Angeles: In the season that started in the Nations Women’s Super League (NWSL) in the spring, the »Angels« struggled around in seventh place. But for the highly successful entrepreneur Northman, other numbers are more important.
16,000 season tickets have been sold and the stadium has 23,500 seats. The atmosphere at every home game is great, the crowd colorful. Of the 220 people working in the association, 75 percent are female, 55 percent of them “colored people”, said the initiator. Even though the coat of arms is pink, the colors of the rainbow dominate. True to the motto: »We can improve the lives of girls and women in society through football.«
Nortman reportedly handed in a dinner in LA with actress Natalie Portman to win the main Angel face. She got the drive from her son Aleph, as the Jerusalem-born 41-year-old once told the »Guardian«: »When I saw that my son adored players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan just as much as he did with Lionel Messi or Karim Benzema When I did that, I realized that supporting women athletes could quickly change the culture.” President Uhrman put it this way: “We’re building a different kind of organization. This is where mission and capital come together.« The moral superstructure, at least that sounds through, is more valuable because it is more sustainable than in conventional US professional clubs. This is especially true for the celebrities who emphasize their role as role models.
Meanwhile, singer Christina Aguilera, YouTube star Casey Neistat, skier Lindsey Vonn, tennis star Serena Williams, US soccer icons Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach support the pioneers – and the list is far from complete. Schult soon plunges into a pool of world-famous personalities. “I’m not someone who follows celebrities to take a selfie, but I’m happy when I get to meet such well-known women,” she said before the European Championships in a media round before the DFB Cup final before she with VfL Wolfsburg won the last title in her homeland for the time being.
America, which has an affinity for sports, is also said to be very excited about the German opinion leader. The angels want to make a difference worldwide, so they need ambassadors from all continents. Not only does the US world champion Christen Press fight for the club, but also Alexandra Riley, captain of the national team from New Zealand. The sponsors have been queuing for a long time, corporations such as the sporting goods giant Nike are providing active support.
According to Northman, $44 million has now been raised this way. The US club alone earns about as much as the entire women’s Bundesliga. In general, ten percent of all income goes to social projects. That sounds exactly like the approach that national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg exclaimed at the lavish reception at the Römer: »Carry the values that we have lived out into our society. Then we would be a bit better.«
It’s a good thing that DFB general secretary Heike Ullrich and Doris Fitschen, head of the DFB project “Women in football”, heard Nortman’s plea for more variety and diversity. Because before the EM, the situation in German women’s football was anything but exemplary: Ullrich and Fitschen promised a month ago that they would finally be active against the declining interest with an average audience of less than 1000 for games in the women’s Bundesliga and the number of games that had been halved since 2010 to tackle girls’ teams, but they didn’t offer a really creative approach.
But now there is no more time to lose, as Voss-Tecklenburg demanded in a passionate appeal on Monday: »DFB, media, society, politics, association and club representatives, take your heart in your hands, as the players did, and Then we’ll go forward with women’s football as well.” Because of the German structure, a colorful bunch can’t just buy the right to play in the Bundesliga – Borussia Dortmund deliberately started at the bottom with their women – but that’s not really the point.
Schult, too, is always concerned first and foremost with attitude. »The association was founded with the intention of creating a certain equality in the largest women’s sport in the USA. It’s never happened like this in Europe.« The 64-time national goalkeeper is attracted by the sporting challenge on the one hand and the overarching philosophy of the club on the other. “This association has a mission that I’m happy to support,” says Schult. Will she soon say: searched and found?
Incidentally, the idea for the club came about when Nortman and her daughter attended a game at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Vancouver. Both were excited about the World Cup but when they looked for a club in California all they found was wasteland. Then she “stalked 100 players, had 100 conversations” until the doors opened. Today, the 46-year-old believes Angel City FC will become “a brand as well-known as Liverpool FC and the Dallas Cowboys.” Why doesn’t she doubt it? “My daughter has just asked me when we will start a club like this in men’s football.”
