Former DFB star Marozsán goes to Saudi Arabia: The call of the desert

Dszenifer Marozsán's Instagram channel has a lot to offer right now. Anyone who browsed the social media platform over the weekend couldn't help but notice the 33-year-old German footballer's current activities. The 112-time national player published six posts with her new club, Al-Qadsiah WFC, and her consulting agency placed a seventh.

Common scenarios are shown: videos of the contract signing, a photo of her shaking hands with sporting director Russ Fraser, an elaborately designed photo collage with all the trophies that Marozsan has won, a montage of her already wearing her jersey.

And a 42-second clip in which the "new star in red"—heroically staged—shows off the number 66 and delivers a few well-considered sentences in English. "I learned to move silently, to let the ball do the talking," says the Hungarian-born player, who grew up in Saarbrücken.

Marozsán continued: "From the top of Europe to the heart of al-Khobar" – that's the name of the city in the east of the desert state, directly on the Persian Gulf, for whose women's football club the 2016 Olympic champion will play. However, this move won't happen quietly.

Her contract with French league leader Olympique Lyon had just expired. Marozsán had celebrated eight league titles, six Champions League titles, and four cup wins at Lyon since 2016. Prior to that, during her time with Bundesliga club 1. FFC Frankfurt, she won the Champions League once and the DFB-Pokal twice.

Dzsenifer Marozsán played 112 international matches for Germany and won the European Championship in 2013.

In 2013 she won the European Championship, and the former DFB player was voted Germany's Footballer of the Year three times.

Marozsán's career is a perfect fit for a finale in Saudi Arabia. At least, it would have been if it had been on the men's side. Cristiano Ronaldo, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané – the list could go on considerably. All of them have monetized their sporting achievements with lucrative multi-million dollar contracts.

Highly decorated female professionals rarely made the move to the desert. Icelandic Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir is one of them, and she will play alongside Marozsán in the future. The former Wolfsburg player joined Al-Qadsiah in the summer of 2024, in the Saudi Women's Premier League, founded three years ago. A German face, especially one of such prominence, was missing – until now.

From Marozsán's perspective, the move is remarkable. Saudi Arabia has been heavily criticized for years for the state of women's rights in the country, as well as for its treatment of homosexuality, which is prosecuted and socially unacceptable in the predominantly Islamic kingdom.

On the road to the 2034 FIFA World Cup, which FIFA, led by powerful President Gianni Infantino, has awarded to Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking a change of course. "We are seeing improvements – especially in gender policy," renowned Islamic scholar Sebastian Sons told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). Although "a certain degree of unequal treatment cannot be ignored," "women's rights have improved significantly, both socially and politically," Sons explained. This is the Crown Prince's "clear agenda."

Unlike in Qatar, the host of the 2022 World Cup, which has also been criticized for its human rights situation, in Saudi Arabia one can observe “strategic investments in grassroots sport, including women’s sport” – “and not as a fig leaf like in Qatar, but very seriously,” said Sons.

So now Dszenifer Marozsan is following the call of the desert. Several – significantly younger – male colleagues are currently following the same path. Enzo Millot, 23, cup winner with VfB Stuttgart, Darwin Núñez (26), English champion with Liverpool, Joao Félix (26, Chelsea FC), and possibly soon Kingsley Coman (29) of FC Bayern Munich are also helping to bring renewed attention to football in Saudi Arabia with their moves.