This evening will keep Laura Freigang busy for a long time.

The Frankfurt striker sustained an injury at the start of the 33rd Bundesliga season, which aims to bring new attention and appreciation to women's football in this country.

Marc Heinrich

sports editor.

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23,200 visitors attended Frankfurt's first game against FC Bayern Munich.

The Bundesliga action started 47 days after the European Championship, which was a success from a German point of view, with a record number of spectators, which should have a signaling effect.

Leaving injured in the shoulder

Freigang was one of the eager players in the ranks of the Hessians who tried in vain to bring the favorites to their knees at 0-0.

After 72 minutes, the national player had to leave the field prematurely.

The 24-year-old fell on the left half of her body in a duel shortly before the half-time break.

As her club announced at the weekend, an investigation revealed that Freigang suffered an acromioclavicular joint injury, has to wear a protective splint for the time being and is out.

“Just great and beautiful”

Freigang justified the fact that she held out for a long time despite the pain and orchestrated the attacking efforts of her team with the special circumstances in the respectably full Frankfurt Arena: "It's just great and nice.

A lot of work was done behind the scenes to make this possible.

I'm super grateful for that."

Through the "adrenaline," she said, she was "somehow" able to hide the symptoms.

The response in the stands clearly surpassed the previous league record from 2014, when VfL Wolfsburg played 1. FFC Frankfurt in front of 12,464 fans;

almost as many spectators came to the Deutsche Bank Park as to the Friday evening game of the men's Bundesliga between Mainz and Hertha BSC (25,300).

Niko Arnautis, the Eintracht women's coach, spoke of a "historic day" for women's football in Germany: "We not only advertised ourselves, but for the entire league."

"High Hopes"

Before the kick-off, industry experts invited by the DFB discussed at the “FF27 Forum – Women in Football” congress how the momentum from the European Championship could be taken with them.

For 2027, the DFB speculates on the organization of the World Cup.

Nadine Kessler, the former Wolfsburg "world footballer" and current Head of Women's Football at UEFA, expressed "great hopes" that the Bundesliga would "continue to become more professional".

DFB Vice-President Sabine Mammitzsch reported that the interest of women and girls had grown noticeably after the EM.

The number of players has increased by 25 percent compared to 2021.

National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg demanded "to be persistent and to keep at it".

Christian Keller gave an idea of ​​how arduous the path can be.

In one of his first actions as managing director of 1. FC Köln, the 43-year-old had a washing machine and dryer purchased for the club's Bundesliga women.

Keller had encountered a player who had taped the name on her jersey.

She told him she had forgotten her own jersey.

At first, Keller thought the kit manager had made a mistake.

"That's when I learned that in the women's Bundesliga, our players took their shirts home and washed them," he reported in Frankfurt.

He ended that immediately.

“A different stadium experience”

Keller said that the Cologne women appeal to a new target group.

“Women's football is a different stadium experience.

If I look at the men over the past ten days, we haven't exactly covered ourselves in glory."

He was referring to the riots during the Rhinelanders' game in the Conference League game in Nice: "We didn't give the image of a woman-friendly, child-friendly sport." FC Köln therefore specifically a "gap in the portfolio".