Schult’s “difficult decision”
A great era is ending at VfL Wolfsburg
1/31/2022, 9:09 p.m
Almuth Schult is one of the great personalities in German women’s football. The goalkeeper collects title after title with VfL Wolfsburg, but Schult also does a great job off the pitch. Now the Olympic champion announces her farewell. For the time being only from VfL Wolfsburg.
Soccer goalkeeper Almuth Schult will leave VfL Wolfsburg after this season after nine years. The club announced that she had not accepted an offer to extend her expiring contract. “I don’t want to say goodbye in the middle of the season, there’s time for that in the summer,” said Schult. “After much deliberation, I decided not to renew my contract with VfL Wolfsburg. It was a very difficult decision because I know what I have at this club.”
Schult came to Wolfsburg from SC 07 Bad Neuenahr in 2013 and her move heralded an era: Schult has won 14 titles with the “wolves”: five times the German championship, seven times the DFB Cup and in 2014 also the Champions League. VfL Wolfsburg currently leads the table in the women’s Bundesliga with Schult in goal ahead of FC Bayern, in the DFB Cup and the Champions League the team is still in the quarter-finals. It is quite possible that the world goalkeeper can say goodbye to 2014 with another title. “Almuth, words cannot describe how grateful we are to you for everything – sporting and human! You will always be one of us,” says the club’s Twitter channel.
Schult became the mother of twins in December 2020, after a shoulder injury she made her comeback about a year ago – after a one-year break. “After very trusting and open talks about her future, we hoped to the last that Almuth would accept the contract offer and continue playing for VfL Wolfsburg,” said Ralf Kellermann, sporting director of the VfL women. “At the same time, we respect the motives for taking a different path in view of their personal situation and leaving us in the summer after nine successful years.”
“Nothing is ready to say yet”
Schult is the only mother in the Bundesliga, it is not yet clear whether the 30-year-old will end her career or continue playing elsewhere. “I’m lucky that I have a lot of options,” said the 30-year-old recently at “kicker”. The result of family talks was that there was a solution A, “which we prefer. If that doesn’t work, we still have B and C,” says Schult: “But nothing is ready for a verdict yet.” At the end of 2021, she explained that it was difficult to reconcile family and professional football.
Schult completed her last of 64 international matches more than two and a half years ago (June 29, 2019). Although she has been in the squad since her baby break, she has not been used. The goal is the European Championships in England in the summer (July 6th to 31st). However, she is not yet “at the top level. And as long as I haven’t reached my old level yet, I can’t make any claims”. She does not want to be satisfied with a role as a reservist at the highlight. At the men’s European Championships last summer, Schult was very successful as a TV expert for ARD.
The 2016 Olympic champion is a co-founder of the “Football can do more” initiative, which campaigns for more gender equality in German football. Most recently, the initiative had considered a candidacy for the DFB presidency, but then decided against it. The result had long been agreed, Schult told the “Zeit”. The state and regional associations of the DFB had recently spoken out publicly for the President of the Middle Rhine Football Association, Bernd Neuendorf. “I have the impression that almost 100 percent of those interested in football want the DFB to be renewed, 17 association presidents, all men, but decide that everything should continue as before,” said co-founder Katja Kraus, who was a former HSV board member.