As of: March 8, 2024, 9:23 a.m
By: Verena Möckl
Comments
Press
Split
Are a team: Lena Kiermeir and her teammates training in Günding.
© bruno haelke
Lena Kiermeir is a striker at SV Günding.
What's special: She is a player and goalscorer in a men's team.
Günding – Lena Kiermeier has been playing football with men for a year.
She is the only woman in the Dachau district who does this.
In an interview with Dachauer Nachrichten, the 20-year-old explains why she doesn't have her own dressing room, how her teammates treat her differently and what clichés still exist in the minds of many football fans.
Ms. Kiermeir, you have been playing as a woman in a men's team for a year.
Why did you make that decision back then?
Lena Kiermeir: The coach of the second men's team came up to me.
He saw that I was scoring a lot of goals in the women's recreational league and asked me if I wanted to try playing for the men's team.
I was looking for a new challenge anyway and finally took the plunge.
Is this something you have to dare to do?
I think so.
You definitely have to be confident.
When I had my first game, I made sure to go onto the field with a confident attitude.
For many people, the fact that women play football is still not considered normal.
What prejudices are you confronted with?
Women can't play football: This stereotype is firmly anchored in the minds of many men.
I find that very unfortunate.
You can't compare women's and men's football.
These are completely different conditions.
I want to motivate women to play men's football too.
Have other women followed your call so far?
No, unfortunately not.
I think that's because there are big differences between women's and men's football.
Many people are hesitant because you generally have to be in a very fit state to be able to keep up with men.
Men play faster and with more physical effort.
My news
Police officer exposes colleague with photomontage read
Discussion about vacancies in the Zieglerbräu: No money, no plan and lots of defects
Johannes Spannraft is the new city council member
With courage and music for equality: headmistress and singer shows attitude on stage
1 hour ago
As a woman in the Bundeswehr: “You can’t be sensitive” read
Devastating mix-ups in Arnzelllesen
Do you feel like you have to train harder than your teammates to get recognition?
Yes.
With men I feel a certain pressure to have to prove myself again and again.
Precisely because I am a woman.
I feel like I have to show that I'm right here.
So not in front of my teammates, but in front of the spectators and the opponents.
How did you receive your teammates?
At first they were a bit skeptical.
It took a few weeks.
But then I became one of them.
They admire what I do.
Someone once said: Respect for doing this to yourself and supporting us men.
I am now part of it and am treated the same as everyone else.
Teammates have become friends.
Do you have your own cabin or do you change clothes together with your fellow players?
I went into the dressing room right from the start and changed with the boys.
I was asked if I wanted my own cabin, but I said no.
I want to be there and not get any extra stuff.
I want to be treated like everyone else.
This makes me feel like part of the team.
Where is it more fun to play: with women or with men?
That's a difficult question: I have two different roles in the women's and men's teams.
As captain of the women's team, I am expected to score a lot of goals.
This is not the case with men.
Are you fouled less than your teammates?
At the beginning the men were more cautious, but since they saw that I also score goals, they see me as a serious opponent.
I get fouled like everyone else.
Sometimes even really hard.
But we women are tougher than men.
We get up quicker when we get fouled and aren't so histrionic.
What do you want for women's football?
A fair pay.
Men put in the same effort as women, but men still get more money.
Men in the district league earn more than women, even if they play in a higher league.
This is because women are sponsored less often than men.
I hope that women's football will finally be more accepted and that stereotypes will be overcome.
As a woman in a men's team, my aim is to set an example: women can also play football.
Read here what it's like to work as a woman in the Bundeswehr.
You can find more news in our Merkur.de app, now in an improved design with more personalization functions.
Direct download, more information can be found here.
Are you an enthusiastic user of WhatsApp?
Merkur.de will now keep you up to date via a new Whatsapp channel.
Click here to go directly to the channel.