Wolfsburg official: Women's football interest high despite setbacks

The image of German women's football has not suffered from the team's poor World Cup performance and other setbacks but other nations are making big efforts, according to the sporting director of top club Wolfsburg, Ralf Kellermann.

Twice world champions Germany went out in a group stage for the first time in summer, and former winners and 2023 runners-up Wolfsburg then failed to make this season's Champions League group stage.

Kellermann told Wednesday's Wolfsburger Allgemeine daily that "the interest in women's football is still as big as before the World Cup, here in Wolfsburg anyway but also in the whole of Germany.

"We have only come down to earth to the extent that we have realised that the competition is bigger than ever," he added.

Kellermann said that the days were over when the classic football nations played for the European title and maybe one or two more for the World Cup trophy.

"The fact that Germany has now failed in this preliminary round group and we are eliminated against third-placed team from France [FC Paris] simply shows how women's football has developed - in Europe and worldwide," he said.

Kellermann said that the leading clubs can pay three times as much salary as Wolfsburg and that big efforts are made at many big clubs.

"The gap to Barcelona is perhaps a little bigger. Real Madrid are doing a lot, as are Lyon and PSG [Paris Saint-Germain] in France, and Juve and Roma are also going full throttle in Italy," he said.