Jena Bundesliga women start the season with fitness and confidence

Relegation remains the main goal of the Carl Zeiss Jena women's Bundesliga team this season. Will they succeed? The FCC team is well-rehearsed and fit, and the coach is accordingly optimistic about the season.

In their last friendly, the Carl Zeiss Jena Bundesliga women's team gained a real boost of confidence. One week before the start of the season, the FCC women drew 1-1 against self-proclaimed top-six team RB Leipzig.

Coach Florian Kästner was satisfied after the match: "We can look forward to the season with optimism," said the 26-year-old, signaling how the team intends to stay in the league again this year: "We conceded little against Leipzig and had good moments on the counterattack." The coach and his team have been working primarily on fitness. "We're fit. We were already fit last year and have worked on it again," said Kästner.

Furthermore, the Jena team can rely on a well-rehearsed team, with limited upheaval. The 27-man squad includes eight new additions. Among them are few prominent players, as the Thuringian club's financial resources do not allow for this. Goalkeeper Julia Kassen, a player from league rivals Freiburg, joined FCC. Striker Isabella Jaron comes from Austria's top division and was already on loan last season.

The players brought in were primarily young; the average age of the seven new players is 21.5 years, significantly lower than the average age of the seven departing players (23.9 years). FCC coach Kästner is thus coaching the youngest team in the league (22.8 years).

And that not only gave them a boost of self-confidence in the friendly against RB: The Thuringians also defeated newly promoted Hamburger SV and only narrowly lost 2:3 to Eintracht Frankfurt.

However, the Jena team did not get through the summer without any negative news: midfielder Fiona Gaißer tore her cruciate ligament in a friendly against Hamburger SV and will be out for several months.

The FCC women's season opener will host the ambitious Hoffenheim team on Monday (September 8, 2025, live ticker starting at 6 p.m.). Things won't get any easier after that, with matches against Wolfsburg, Bayern, the strong newly promoted Union Berlin, and Frankfurt waiting. "We have a tough schedule with busy weeks," Kästner predicts: "The games on our level only start from Matchday 6. Then we have to take points." Then it's against Nuremberg and newly promoted Hamburger SV.

Dirk Hofmeister

• MDR
• Carl Zeiss Jena
• Women
• Bundesliga
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