Those who play well leave. While young female footballers seek their fortune elsewhere, the Swiss women's league struggles for substance

Recently, Noemi Ivelj boarded a train from Frankfurt and traveled to Switzerland to spend two days with her family. Ivelj is 19 years old and a revelation in Swiss women's football. With GC, she finished second behind YB in the Women's Super League and made two appearances for the national team at Euro 2025. However, Ivelj will only follow the Swiss Championship from afar.

She did what everyone who has excelled in the Swiss league has recently done: she moved abroad, to the Bundesliga, to Eintracht Frankfurt, where Géraldine Reuteler and Nadine Riesen are also under contract.

Ivelj has recently started making a living from football. Or rather, she's making ends meet. She can do her schoolwork on the train between Frankfurt and Switzerland. She attended the cantonal school in Baden and plans to graduate from high school in two years through distance learning. She's moved into a temporary apartment in Frankfurt and can travel to training with a teammate. The young woman is taking a big step.

If a woman wants to play football, there's no other option, even at a young age; Switzerland offers too little. Men of the same age would be astonished to see the contracts of "non-amateurs," some of which are worth a few hundred francs. At least the number of players with contracts in the Swiss league has risen to 132. Last year, there were 123, and in 2021, only 70. That's now at least 13 per club. But: professional status is far from being reached.

The fact that they couldn't make a living from it also applies to former YB players, 19-year-old Iman Beney and 18-year-old Naomi Luyet. They are now missing as role models in the local league. Beney moved to Manchester City, and Luyet to TSG Hoffenheim. Luyet suffered injury problems last season, only appearing in the league final and missing the Euros. Even now, Luyet is fighting for her fitness.

Hoffenheim's communications department announced that the player is injured. An interview will only be possible once she is fit and has played in the Bundesliga. Timeframe? "Unforeseeable."

The young female footballers are facing profound changes, will fight for playing time, and will have to put in more physical effort. Along with Luyet, Ivelj will also have to assert herself in the Bundesliga, within professional structures and with a time commitment she's never experienced before. Ivelj also struggled physically at the end of last season after suffering a knee injury and was only able to qualify for the European Championship thanks to a lengthy rehabilitation period in Munich.

The family discussion about whether she should stay in Zurich for at least another year was extensive and had the obvious conclusion: off abroad. It's not primarily about the money, which is comparatively modest even abroad. It's about the whole.

A similar story likely played out in the Beney family. Iman Beney is touted on Manchester City's website as a "Swiss Starlet ," a "model player" in the Swiss European Championship team. Her contribution to YB's title after fourteen years is also discussed. And the cruciate ligament tear that kept her out of the 2023 World Cup. The same applies to Beney, Ivelj, and Luyet: gain experience, be patient, and make sure your body isn't overtaxed.

Sydney Schertenleib also faces tough competition. The Euros weren't a major showcase for the 18-year-old, who seemed exhausted. Schertenleib plays for the team that had the biggest impact on the Euros. FC Barcelona is more or less the Spanish team that lost to England on penalties in the European Championship final.

The Barça women's team is currently in Mexico on a preseason tour. The Barça website provides a brief list of the squad for the six-day Mexico trip: Aitana (Bonmatí), Alexia (Putellas), Vicky (López), and Sydney.

Reports in the Spanish media suggesting that Barcelona's women's team is having to cut costs because of the financial imbalance and the cost-cutting measures implemented by the men's team are irritating. There's even talk of a bloodletting, but the best players haven't (yet) been affected. The images from the Mexico trip are a stark contrast to this. Nevertheless, women's football is also fighting for its standing abroad.

Other Swiss national team players are also traveling with their employers for training purposes. 23-year-old goalkeeper Livia Peng no longer plays for Werder Bremen, but now plays for Chelsea, where she's not afraid of top-class competition in the form of European Championship winner Hannah Hampton.

Chelsea were in the Netherlands for training camp. Peng played a pre-season match in Hampton's absence, after which the Chelsea website stated that the Blues were "in good hands."

Question marks still surround 32-year-old Lia Wälti, who has been under contract with Arsenal since 2018. The English women's team traveled to a training camp in Germany without Wälti; "after a minor procedure," the player is working on her fitness, according to the club, which won the Champions League in 2025. Wälti had a surgical procedure (abscess) on August 1 and is unlikely to play for another two months. Whether she will remain at Arsenal beyond the summer of 2026 under these circumstances is questionable.

Wälti will definitely miss the first few weeks of the league: In England, Germany, and France, the championship begins on the first weekend of September. In Italy, it's early October, and in Spain, it's already late August.

Following the inevitable exodus of under-20s from the Swiss league, coach Pia Sundhage, who is under contract with the Swiss Football Association until the end of 2025, can visit almost all of her national team players abroad. Except for Coumba Sow, who will soon be 31, remains the head of FC Basel . Sow, however, did not play a single minute at the European Championships. This alone demonstrates how difficult the Swiss women's league is facing internationally.