(Auckland, New Zealand) Julie Ertz was on the run.
On a sunny May morning, the USA soccer defender woke up at dawn to dress and feed her baby, Madden, and get him ready for a trip. Then, in a hurry, she grabbed her gear and headed to a meeting with her National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team, followed by several hours of practice.
As soon as practice was over, Julie Ertz ran to her car to drop off her mother-in-law and Madden at the Los Angeles airport on a flight to Phoenix, Arizona. At their home, Ertz’s husband, Arizona Cardinals tight end Zach Ertz, took over parenting duties, while Julie and her team, FC Angel City of the NWSL, went off to play a game. game on the east coast.
In the weeks that followed, there were more busy days: goodbyes at the airport, happy reunions, training sessions and road trips. Lots of time away from baby and husband. During the interview for this article, as Ms. Ertz, 31, described this crazy schedule and all that she has to do to play soccer and be a mother, her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know if I would come back,” she says of her return to soccer just months after the birth of her first child. She wanted to participate in her third World Cup.
Motherhood imposes restrictions, regardless of occupation. But there are also professional consequences: lost jobs, missed promotions and even promising careers sacrificed after realizing the limits of work-life balance: there are rarely enough hours in the day to give 100% to both. .
The same is true for top female soccer players like Julie Ertz and other World Cup moms in Australia and New Zealand. This group also includes two other members of the American team, Alex Morgan and Crystal Dunn, and players from countries such as France, Germany and Jamaica.
These professional athletes have spent their lives training, honing their performances, planning their careers. In short, to focus on themselves. Having children is a game changer. “No more naps now if I feel like it,” said Crystal Dunn, mother of 1-year-old Marcel.
Players who have chosen to step away from the sport to have a baby have all asked the same tough questions: Will my body be the same? Will I be as focused? Would I even want to come back?
However, women’s soccer is experiencing a resurgence of interest and investment that has professionalized the game, increased revenues and made it more difficult to maintain a place among the best teams. Players who want children face a new question:
What is the place of moms in elite soccer?
Casey Krueger, defender for the USA team since 2016, thought she could return in time for the World Cup. Pregnant in 2021, she had almost two years left before the competition. But after giving birth to a baby boy in July 2022, she worried she wouldn’t be selected.
An emergency C-section complicated the delivery, so she worked with a pelvic floor therapist to speed up her return. In April, things were going well. In a friendly match against Ireland, Casey Krueger had returned to her pre-pregnancy level.
But she was not selected. While she was away, other players got ahead of her. She follows the World Cup on TV.
“I was willing to take that risk,” Casey Krueger said, holding her son in her arms, during an interview before the selection was announced. “But as soon as you see that adorable face, you realize that nothing beats that. »
All over the world, players take this risk, or at least assume their choice. For example, ex-American midfielder Carli Lloyd said she quit playing before she was 40 because she and her husband wanted to start a family. Another American, Becky Sauerbrunn, decided to have her eggs frozen in 2022 and continue her career.
German midfielder Melanie Leupolz is taking part in the World Cup after giving birth in 2022, but not her former teammate, goalkeeper Almuth Schult, who is pregnant with her third child. Jamaica has two mothers in its squad. One of them, Cheyna Matthews, has three sons. In a video posted ahead of the World Cup, she fought back tears as she said one of her boys always asks her why she has to be away for “too many days”.
“It’s a lot of sacrifice,” she added.
According to U.S. Soccer, the sport’s governing body in the United States, 17 mothers have played for the national team, the first being Joan Dunlap in the mid-1980s.
United States star striker Alex Morgan and her husband, former player Servando Carrasco, have the help of a nanny to care for their 3-year-old daughter, Charlie. But Morgan, 34, prefers to take Charlie on his trips with the USA team. She installs an inflatable bed and her daughter sleeps next to her at the hotel.
Sometimes the “aunts” within the team act as unpaid babysitters. These teammates make up the informal extended family on which many players depend. After a friendly game last spring, Charlie tugged at his mother’s shorts as she searched in vain for defender Emily Fox. “Where’s Foxy?” Charlie asked. I want Foxy! »
But aunts can’t do everything. So for years, U.S. Soccer has been paying nannies on trips. This came under pressure from the first team mothers, but over time more support was built into the team’s collective agreement, which covers travel costs for children and caregivers. two. In the American camp, in any case, the mothers can better concentrate on their work.
Five mothers, a record, were present at the training camp of the American team in April. High chairs were placed next to the dining tables and there were strollers in the hotel where the team was staying. During the preseason games in the spring, the players’ children had their own suite: on the door, there was a sign reading “USA NANNIES”.
Accommodations for mothers are becoming more common, but soccer’s ruthlessness is sometimes still visible, especially in Europe, where the concept is newer.
“The mentality was that pregnancy equals the end of our career,” Almuth Schult told German media Deutsche Welle. “No one was prepared for the presence of children. »
In 2021 Icelandic Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir went on maternity leave. His team, Olympique Lyonnais, refused to pay him his full salary. With the help of FIFPro, the global players’ union, she sued FIFA, world football’s governing body, and won a landmark judgment.
Sarai Bareman, head of women’s soccer at FIFA, helped shape the new rules. Players are entitled to 14 weeks maternity leave paid at two-thirds of salary; their teams must take them back when they return. Today, Ms Bareman, a former player, is herself the mother of a toddler who can be seen running around the main FIFA hotel in Auckland during the World Cup.
According to Sarai Bareman, eight female players have registered their children with FIFA to accompany their teams to the World Cup. Several other soccer moms made their own arrangements. The support they receive – like their visibility – was uncommon a decade ago.
“In my opinion, North America is causing this. Players returning to the game after giving birth have been widely publicized, she said. Honestly, I think that encouraged a lot of players around the world to say out loud that, yes, they have kids too. Their children are there. It is an essential part of their life. »
