SC Freiburg’s first division footballers have been preparing for the new season for a week. Captain Hasret Kayikci has been with us for ten years. She knows how far the sports club has come since then. And what’s left to do.
SC Freiburg’s first division footballers have been preparing for the new season for a week. Captain Hasret Kayikci has been with us for ten years. She knows how far the sports club has come since then. And what’s left to do.
It wasn’t that long ago that SC Freiburg’s Bundesliga women were still training in the south-west of the city. On an aging grass pitch, between a gas station and a hardware store, several kilometers from the actual home ground at the time, in the Msle Stadium. To be precise: one year.
Since their men’s counterpart moved to the new Europa-Park stadium last season, the women have been playing and training in the Dreisamstadion, the footballers’ old stadium.
It is the preliminary high point of the efforts of the sports club to raise the infrastructure. It began when the head of the football team, Birgit Bauer, was promoted to full-time almost half a decade ago after more than 25 years of voluntary work. The support staff became more professional, the club hired a video analyst and intensified athletic support. So now a new home. What does that do to the ball artists from Breisgau?
“It has become much more professional. However, it all took a little while. For example, we have just managed to get all our games to be broadcast, even if only on pay TV. Nevertheless, things are going in the right direction,” says Hasret Kayikci (30). She has been playing for the sports club for more than a decade, is senior officer and team leader. With her demands for more support for women’s football, she herself has fueled the SC development in recent years. The history of the soccer players at the Freiburg sports club is ambivalent. Freiburg has been supporting its women’s section longer than many other men’s Bundesliga clubs. That’s why the sports club was one of the top teams ten years ago. In addition to VfL Wolfsburg, SC was almost alone on the floor.
But then came the 2011 World Cup in their own country – and other clubs also recognized the potential of the kicker. Since rules were then introduced in the English Premier League that required the professional clubs to set up women’s teams professionally, a number of clubs in Germany jumped up. Especially since Spanish clubs underlined the special appeal of the sport with their sold-out huge stadiums this year.
Hoffenheim, Bayern, Leverkusen, Bremen, Cologne, and now Dortmund too: Ever since then, more and more men’s football clubs have been supporting their women’s footballers. The sports club has grown as a result of top-class competition. The fact that the soccer players are now playing in the Dreisam Stadium also seems like a reaction to this changed situation. Kayikci therefore says: “I hope that at some point we will take a big step and not just progress in these small steps.”
Against this background, the Freiburg team started preparing for the new season a week ago with a changed squad. Before the new season, Kayikci sees her club in a good position: “I’m totally convinced of our team. In combination with the coaching team, a lot is certainly possible.” You expect a broad midfield behind Bayern and Wolfsburg, in which you also classify your team. She has high hopes for the cup: “We definitely want to win the title for the first time this year.” What is also new is that the sports club is competing with a first division and second division team at the same time for the second time since the premiere ten years ago. This is evidence of the sheer endless source of Freiburg talent, but also underscores the enormous tasks that the department will have to master in the coming season.
The biggest innovation took place in the position of coaching. Theresa Merk (32), previously Grasshoppers Zrich and former assistant coach at VfL Wolfsburg, follows Daniel Krauss (38), who left the club after three years. The new trainer was enthusiastic at the start a week ago: “The conditions are great, the girls are highly motivated and the infrastructure is great.”
Luca Murdolo, who previously coached the Freiburger FC Oberliga soccer team, has also been at her side since this summer. Captain Kayikci said: “We speak one language – and the way Theresa wants to play football and her style suits us very well.”
The coaching duo welcomed five newcomers to the pitch, including attacking powers Chiara Bouziane and Selina Vobian. It’s an upheaval of the smaller kind. But that, too, needs to be overcome. And that’s why the Breisgau women are now preparing for the new round for eleven weeks. Among other things, as in the pre-pandemic times, again in the training camp in Elbigenalp, Austria. During this time they want to keep the tools for the coming season. After all, the competition doesn’t keep itself in check by itself. And they definitely don’t want to lose touch in the Dreisamstadion.
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