A ball net instead of a satchel, attacking the goal instead of giving a presentation, a pitch instead of a classroom: Alara Şehitler and Franziska Kett are looking forward after graduating from high school. How does it feel to start a new chapter of your young life? The two FC Bayern Women players chatted about it in our members' magazine ‘51’.
A small path leads down from the hotel to the training ground in the tranquil village near Kufstein in Tyrol. The steps on the slope are narrow, making it difficult to walk side by side, so the FC Bayern Women footballers move in single file, one behind the other, when they set off for training. Once they reach the pitch, they pass a few balls to each other to warm up, keeping time with the music blaring from a large speaker.
Alara Şehitler (18) and Franziska Kett (20) are right in the midst of the flurry of activity unfolding beneath the cloudless sky on the pitch; They move between their teammates and the slalom poles that will later delineate the finish corridors for the sprints, and Alara applauds as Lea Schüller skilfully steers an American football into the arms of her teammates during the warm-up. Just a moment before, each of them was on their own, but now they're part of the team, right in the thick of things – that sums up the two youngsters' situation pretty well: they're now officially part of the FC Bayern Women squad, they have to and can hold their own, and they're about to embark on a special season. They passed their school-leaving exams in the spring, which is a milestone for any young person and marks the beginning of a new chapter. For the duo, this means focusing fully on sport from now on. School-leaving exams first, then the ball.
Applying Newton's law to crosses
Before training started, the two made their way to the terrace of the team hotel for a chat with ‘51’; an interview right after breakfast and before the first training session. It's obvious they're used to a full morning schedule from their schooldays and that it doesn't bother them. In the background, the mountain range towers above them, creating a wonderful Austrian panorama. Felix Austria (Happy Austria), how fitting: The high expectations that have accompanied the two young internationals for quite some time are certainly not going to diminish in the future – but they're not intimidated by this. "A lot happened for us this year," says Franzi, "we were under a lot of stress, but we managed to juggle our school-leaving exams with football." Alara smiles and says: "We're looking forward to everything that’s ahead of us." Discussions about mathematical curves or Newton's law in physics lessons will in future tend to focus on the possible trajectories of crosses or switching play. Putting theory into practice on the pitch.
Maths was generally a bit of an issue: it was Franzi's favourite subject, but Alara didn't rank it very high on her list of favourites, preferring German and English. Shortly before her finals, Alara picked up her smartphone one day to ask her teammate, who was on a training course with the German national team at the time, for some advice. Franzi naturaly spent her entire lunch break helping her figure out everything she needed to know about hypotenuses. "That was teamwork," they both say with a smile.
Although they graduated from different schools – both located near the FC Bayern Campus – they often got together to study, sometimes studying the periodic table and oxidation values in chemistry, sometimes discussing poetry interpretations, the Roman Empire and the French Revolution, perhaps testing each other on vocabulary or discussing photosynthesis in biology. Alara sat her exams in German, English, maths and business administration; Franzi in maths, German, sport, economics and Latin. It was a wide range of subjects, and going through it all together made everything easier, says Alara. They would meet up at the bakery in the mornings and then study together before heading off to training. "Despite the stress, it was a cool time," Franzi recalls. And every now and then they had to slow down; not often, but now and then, after a long day of training, they would tell themselves that a visit to the ice cream parlour was more worthwhile than yet another look at their school books. Rehab for the mind – it's all about balance. In the end, Franzi had to take two exams in a condensed period because of the DFB (German FA) courses. During the most intensive phases, it meant she spent a long time after training cramming until midnight.
Appreciation from coach José Barcala
Reflecting on that period, the duo says that things "just worked", and their packed schedule in the past only makes the question of what the future holds even more interesting. Alara says they didn't make a weekly schedule around their final exams, the Bundesliga run-in and the cup final coup, "because it wouldn't have been possible to stick to it anyway, as something always came up". Now the two still have the same commitments when it comes to the club, but overall they have much more time for themselves. It's a weight off their shoulders, says Franzi, "from now on we can focus more and work specifically on our weaknesses." There will be more time for the gym, for example, says Alara, "I feel like I have even more energy now." Until now, adds Franzi, "we were always the 'little ones' who simultaneously attended school. That's going to change now."
„Until now, we were always the 'little ones' who simultaneously attended school. That's going to change now.”
Franziska Kett
During the training session a little later, Alara plays in a group with Pernille Harder and Linda Dallmann, while Franzi joins Lena Oberdorf, Klara Bühl and new signing Vanessa Gilles from OL Lyonnes. Both are growing into the team, a process that has been ongoing for some time. Alara made her debut for the national team around her 18th birthday, and Franzi even received a call-up for the European Championship in Switzerland despite a year plagued by injuries. ‘School-leavers' trip to the European Championship semi-finals’ was one headline about the rising star during the tournament, and she has to laugh: others fly to Mallorca after their school-leaving exams, "I prefer the school-leavers' trip I had". She was delighted that the DFB had given her the evening off for her graduation ball. For her classmates, the night lasted until the early hours of the morning, but she took her leave at midnight and was taken to join up with the DFB team at eight the next morning. You have to sacrifice quite a lot, she says, but she's happy to make sacrifices for her big dreams.
For Alara, the day her exam results were released was also something special – not because she had to sacrifice being there to get them in person, but because of her coach's understanding. Her final school grades were released on the morning that coincided with the first week of pre-season training, and when she told her new coach José Barcala, the Spaniard promptly rescheduled the training session especially for her so she wouldn't miss either. "He said it was a 'special day' for me and that I should enjoy it,” says the midfielder, "it was a wonderful gesture of appreciation."
During training, a tractor rumbles through the idyllic Tyrolean mountains in the adjacent field, and a poster at the nearby bus stop advertises European street food – the world has so much to offer these days, with its roots and connections spanning the globe. So what are the two young women in FC Bayern jerseys striving for besides football? First, they say, the focus will be purely on the pitch, but after a year they'll also start looking for a new intellectual challenge. Franzi is considering going to university to study primary school teaching or social pedagogy ("I'd like to do something with children"), while Alara is thinking about a sports-related degree. But one thing is clear: first, they'll treat themselves to a season without the double load of football and school. And then, with their batteries recharged, they'll take on new challenges.
Processes on and off the pitch
A much-quoted maxim is that you don't study for school, but for life. Franzi and Alara nod; they've already learned to make important decisions outside of school. Franzi had to keep picking herself up after numerous setbacks during her rehab phases, while Alara made a profound personal decision when she decided to no longer play under her surname, but with ‘Alara’ on her jersey. In many comments, especially on social media, it had increasingly been all about her name and not about the footballer, she says. Now people write to her saying they understand and that it's a shame that inappropriate comments forced her to take such steps. But the overall tone of their messages is that it was a strong decision – "and that 'Alara' looks cool on the jersey," says the 18-year-old with a smile.
At the end of the training session, she and Franzi do another lap of the training ground for photos for ‘51’. The others have already made their way up the hill to the hotel, the coaches are packing away the training gear, and the large speaker has been switched off. Alara pulls it into a storage room. She's one of the players responsible for the sound, she says. In sync together, as a team – Alara Şehitler and Franziska Kett are set to mature into personalities who in future will increasingly set the tone at FC Bayern Women.
FC Bayern Women are set to play in front of their biggest ever crowd in the season opener:
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