Almost two years ago, Lena Goeßling ended her career as a footballer. She came to her new job as a players' adviser more by chance, but she's also staying true to the Bundesliga. She still sees a lot of potential in this. But it's not just about the money.
Tuva Hansen has a unique selling proposition in the women's Bundesliga this winter. The defender moved to FC Bayern in January - and according to soccerdonna.de, the second-placed player transferred EUR 50,000 to SK Brann in Norway. The Norwegian international is the only transfer that a club has paid a fee for. This Sunday she will be a guest with the Munich team to kick off the new football year at the bottom of the league, the fallen traditional club Turbine Potsdam (1 p.m. in the live ticker on ntv.de).
It almost looked completely different in England. The world-record transfer in the Women's Super League fell through only because of Manchester United's tenacity not to give up Alessia Russo. Otherwise Arsenal would have paid 565,000 euros for the European champion. Sums that are unthinkable in the Bundesliga, says player advisor Lena Goeßling in an interview with ntv.de. "It's different in England because there's just a different financial background there." Premier League clubs are obliged to start a women's team, investors have apparently already recognized the economic potential of the sport more clearly, the TV deal in England guarantees the clubs significantly more income than in Germany.
In this country, there are still many changes of club without a fee, and the big money does not always flow internationally. Lina Magull, now captain of FC Bayern, once said in the podcast "Mittags bei Henning" that her move from VfL Wolfsburg to SC Freiburg in 2017 cost something, but she paid the sum herself. A situation that Goessling, who will be a professional footballer at VfL Wolfsburg until 2021, sees ambivalently. "In general, I don't think that much of it. If a club really wants a player, there are always ways and means of paying the transfer fee," said the 36-year-old. "It's also not a good sign to the outside world."
Ultimately, however, the player has to decide what she wants and when the club and the city are so tempting, Goessling can even understand it. "I probably would have done it if I had a different life there, if my private life was different or if my partner was nearby." The most important thing is what makes you “personally happy”.
The woman, who played 106 times for the DFB team, changed sides after her active career. After ten years with league dominator VfL Wolfsburg, she stopped competitive sports in 2021 - and slipped into her current industry rather unplanned. "It was a coincidence that I met Volker Struth in 'Doppelpass'. It wasn't clear where my path would lead to and we just sat down." It quickly became clear that women's football was on the rise, the Sports360 agency also wanted to get involved - and Goessling was the right person for the job. "I was critical myself when I started, whether it was something for me. As a player, you are perceived differently than when you are practically employed now. And of course, it takes time for people to say that they are no longer players , but on the other side."
In the meantime, she has a number of professionals and numerous up-and-coming greats under her wing. National player Sophia Kleinherne from Eintracht Frankfurt, for example, her former Wolfsburg teammate, the Dutchman Dominique Janssen, plus Frankfurt's top talent Carlotta Wamser. Above all, it is the youngsters that Goessling is concentrating on - also because many areas were already well grazed when she took off. "The agency should have started maybe two years earlier because the market in women's football is already quite full."
She now also has 16 and 17-year-olds under contract who play in the regional league. But she doesn't want to appeal to younger people, signing children is just as controversial as it is for men. She knows from her own experience what obstacles there are: "Back then, my father was always rather negative about getting help." And yet she had an adviser. "Yes, I did it because I think when you sign a contract, my father wouldn't have known, for example, what should and shouldn't be in it."
They are supposedly small things that she would like to pass on to her protégés. "It hasn't always been easy in my career, it hasn't always been uphill, there have also been setbacks in my career," she looks back to ntv.de. When she resigned from the national team in 2019, she was publicly annoyed with coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, and the end of her career did not go quite as she wished. The fact that the wolves had not extended their contract was "a shock" for them, as they said at the time. At the same time, however, she could not imagine doing justice to another club after ten years at the Mittelland Canal. Then she met Struth. "I think that's the most important thing, that you're there for a player and that you can say: 'You, that's how I acted in the situation. I took that and that advice.' That's why I say that it's an advantage for me that I come from that area."
In addition, a network with a consultant can simplify a career. While the way for boys is often mapped out via a youth center, there is still a lot of freedom for girls - but with it also imponderables. "It's not that easy for young players to just leave the club. The package has to be right, the school too." The financial aspect is also important, after all, life must be financed.
Consulting agencies can contribute to professionalization, but Goeßling doesn't see everything that happens with men as positive. Women don't really pamper, "they question, they're more independent," says the woman, who began her career at FC Gütersloh in 2000 before moving to Wolfsburg via SC Bad Neuenahr. "If there's a topic that interests you, like nutrition, then just do your own research and don't say, 'I need someone to explain nutrition to me,'" she explains. "And of course they don't have the financial means to say, 'Yeah, then I'll just get my chef to cook for me.' It just doesn't work." The women often cannot afford the environment that is perfectly tailored to professional sports, including private trainers.
The comparison with men's football is flawed - and perhaps the really big circus and the really big sums aren't even worth striving for. As is well known, the transfer of Neymar from Barcelona to Paris for a ridiculous 222 million euros earned no respect, only shaking of the head. Her own job doesn't differ that much from that of her colleagues in men's football: "Somehow the business is the same, just maybe not the amount of money." She is certain: "There is still a lot, a lot of potential in the women's field. If you talk about top players, it's maybe the first four clubs in Germany, in Spain there are two or three clubs. It's always just parts of the league, in where there are top players." The transfer fees that can be heard from England, the professional structures in the top teams in the Bundesliga: they show the way things could go in the future.
