Melanie Leupolz: Chelsea announce pregnancy of national player

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Melanie Leupolz became English champion in 2021 with Chelsea

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David Lidstrom/Getty Images

The German national soccer player Melanie Leupolz will be absent from Chelsea FC until the end of the season and will therefore also miss the European Championship in the summer.

The reason, however, is positive news: As her club announced, Leupoz is expecting a child.

In the coming months she will train lightly but will no longer be used in games, a statement said.

Leupolz last played for Chelsea this season in December.

Since then she has also been absent from international matches due to the consequences of the corona virus.

Now the 27-year-old will also be absent from the European Championships in July, which will take place in England.

As Chelsea announced, they are looking forward to "welcoming Melanie back to us after her maternity leave".

"I'm very happy for Melly, because this is of course great news for her personally," said national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg in a DFB statement.

»Of course it is a bitter loss for us, especially with regard to the European Championship, but that is not decisive in this situation, but the joy we share with her about her very personal happiness.«

Leupolz switched to the Women's Super League in 2020 as captain of the top Bundesliga club FC Bayern.

As a regular player, she won the championship with Chelsea last year.

More and more top stars are being attracted to the English league, which is partly due to sponsorship contracts and a lucrative television deal.

Football career alongside pregnancy

For a long time it was not common for professional players to have children during their careers.

Germany international goalkeeper Almuth Schult told DW that the biggest challenge was getting fit again.

Schult criticized that football provided too little support for the compatibility of career and family.

Schult later said: For men, football professionals “have enough financial reserves to handle their family situation.

That's not possible with us."

This is one of the reasons why she is considering ending her career at the age of 31.

Schult announced her pregnancy in 2019, gave birth to twins in 2020 and celebrated her comeback in goal at VfL Wolfsburg in 2021.

US superstar Alex Morgan and current national coach Voss-Tecklenburg are other examples of women who became mothers during their careers.

Fifa introduced a new set of rules in 2020 to support pregnant women.

Accordingly, players can go on maternity leave for at least 14 weeks, and contract terminations due to pregnancy are not permitted.

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