Siegfried Dietrich has been roaming the land of women's football for many years, pointing out untapped potential, promoting development opportunities and designing rosy future scenarios.
A lot of things got going slowly, very slowly, and in some places the Bundesliga is still a long way from being modern.
But the sports director for women at Frankfurt Eintracht never gave in, not even when his 1. FFC Frankfurt went through a long dry spell in the middle of the league.
Now in the second year after the task of the independent FFC and the integration into the SBU, we are thinking big again, in international categories.
Before the Bundesliga restart this Sunday (1 p.m. on MagentaSport, 1,000 spectators are allowed) with the home game against SC Freiburg, the talented team is home to national players from seven different countries, including six German A-players since Sara Doorsoun from Wolfsburg signed up for the winter .
There is no alternative to the fact that such a well-known and strong team is aiming for participation in the Champions League by at least third place in the league at the end of the season.
Since this season, the premier league has become even more enticing for clubs thanks to UEFA's significantly improved revenue opportunities.
At the current fourth in the table, it has been precisely registered that the two top German clubs FC Bayern and VfL Wolfsburg will play their upcoming quarter-final home games in the large arenas of their male club colleagues.
A path that could one day also be open to Eintracht women.
Even if this is still a long way to the knockout round of the Champions League.
Different numbers than the FFC
The European Cup finals in the well-attended old Waldstadion were highlights of the FFC club's history.
With Dietrich and his agency, who were not patrons, but investors and guarantors of game operations and plenty of trophies for a successful era in Frankfurt women's football.
With the Champions League triumph in Berlin in 2015 as the last hurrah.
Then things went downhill from a sporting point of view, international appearances were unattainably far away.
Now it's time to go back to the big stage, to travel in the European Cup and sometimes to the big arena at home.
And Eintracht is obviously willing to invest in that.
The SGE is strictly silent about exact figures, as is the case with the other licensed clubs that have their women's teams cross-subsidized by men's professional operations.
However, signing veteran international Sara Doorsoun for a fee and various contract extensions for players who came into the team young (and cheaply) and are now important cornerstones of the club and their selection teams will have pushed up the budget.
Although Dietrich says that "the salary increases in women's football are not gigantic", but professional players can now call up completely different numbers than they did in the FFC days.
At that time, the budget of the women's football club was between 1.7 and two million euros.
According to those who know the scene, this should have increased significantly, maybe even doubled.
"Financially, we are within the range that we agreed on in the Eintracht board," said Dietrich.
"It's a super important phase right now in terms of how we are positioning ourselves for the years to come."
In any case, the sporty Frankfurt table silver has remained completely in the house.
A total of ten players have recently extended their contracts early.
National player Sjoeke Nüsken signed on Thursday until the summer of 2024, although she was "very popular across Europe" according to head coach Niko Arnautis.
Chelsea are said to have been interested in the 21-year-old midfielder.