Iceland’s captain Sara Björk Gunnarsdottir recovered in eight months after giving birth to the EC fields. There are more mothers playing in the European Championship than ever, behind it, among other things, are the new rules regarding motherhood and pregnancy drawn up by Fifa.
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Iceland and Lyon’s star player, 31 years old Sara Björk with Gunnarsdottir had only one goal in November. After the birth of her child, she wanted to represent her home country at the European Championships eight months away.
The goal was met. Iceland’s number one name and the only midfielder to be twice chosen as his country’s athlete of the year returned to the field in the French premier league in March. In May, he won his second Champions League title with Lyon.
Finally, Gunnarsdottir marched onto the pitch with the captain’s armband on Sunday 10 July against Belgium at the small stadium of Manchester City’s academy team. After the match ended in a draw, Gunnarsdottir had her little boy Ragnar’s to his arms on the field.
– It’s crazy that he is here with me on the grass, Gunnarsdottir laughed in an interview with the Icelandic public radio company RUV, with her son in her arms.
A record number of mothers, thirteen in total, will be playing in the Women’s European Football Championship this year. Iceland has the most of them, five players.
Although the number itself is still small, with a total of 368 players participating in the games, the increase in the number of mothers is significant. For example, in 2017, according to Fifpro, the international soccer players’ association, only two percent of the female players worldwide it counted were mothers.
Behind the change are changes in attitudes towards motherhood in football and, above all, the expected change in the operation of the international sports federation. Fifpro’s investigation in 2017 also revealed that several women had to end their football careers when they became mothers.
Fifa’s maternity rules were the first step
Last year, the long-awaited Fifa regulations on matters related to the maternity of players came into force. Among other things, maternity leave was made paid. During maternity leave of at least 14 weeks, players must be paid at least two-thirds of their contractual salary. In addition, the rules require players to have the right to return to their team after pregnancy and the possibility of private medical treatment.
According to Fifpro, this Fifa regulation is the first step in supporting motherhood in football. However, one of the most important things in the rules was that they prevent a player from being fired due to becoming a mother with various fines.
– At the beginning of my playing career, players were still fired from their teams if they got pregnant. The regulation is a gigantic change in women’s football, the vice-president of the Swedish players’ association Caroline Jonsson said For Sydsvenskan (you switch to another service) previously.
Jönsson played as the first goalkeeper of the Swedish national team in 1999–2009. She has also worked at the international level in Fifpro as one of the voices demanding support for motherhood. In his opinion, the support rules regarding motherhood and pregnancy still need to be improved in relation to the entire soccer-playing world. They also want to support the fatherhood of football players.
– In Fifpro, we want a uniform set of rules for all football players who become older, said Jönsson, a member of the board of the international players’ association.
Back to top form
For Gunnarsdottir, motherhood naturally brought its own challenges. His spouse Arni Vilhjalmsson is also a professional soccer player who played last season in the French second tier for the Ligue 2 club Rodez AF. The distance between the couple was a four-hour drive and more than 400 kilometers, and Vilhjalmsson could only visit his family a couple of times a week.
The couple got help from a babysitter and relatives. The main responsibility for little Ragnar was left to Gunnarsdottir, who, with her hopes of returning, took care of her son with little sleep and a varied daily rhythm. The Iceland captain described her post-pregnancy months to the BBC (switching to another service) “physically and mentally exhausting”, but at the same time the best time of his life.
– I’m still really proud of that time, because I worked incredibly hard to be in top shape again. At the same time, I was able to show other players that it is possible to be a professional soccer player and a mother, she said.
The core piece of Iceland, who moved to Juventus, is in top condition again. He has run 10.47 kilometers per match in his first two matches in the preliminary group of the European Championship. For comparison, the player who has run the most kilometers in the games so far, Suomen Emmi Alanenran an average of 12.11 kilometers per match in three matches.
Different choices in seeing children
Parents also want to see their children with the national teams, if they can. Players’ children enjoying themselves in the stands and, among other things, meeting their fathers after the games are a familiar sight in men’s prestigious competitions. Teams at the Women’s European Championship have slightly different policies when it comes to seeing players and their children during their free time.
Iceland allows players to keep their child with them in their accommodation only if the child is under one year old. So all of the mother five of Icelanders, Gunnarsdottir, Dagny Brynjarsdottir, Sif Atladottir, Sandra Sigurdardottir and Elisa Vidarsdottirdo not get to see their children during the games.
Belgium Lenie Onziaof England Demi Stokes and the Netherlands Sherida Spitze and Stefanie van Der Gragt get to see their children during the games on separate family days of their teams.
Swedish Lina Hurtig’s, Hedvig Lindahl and I lived Rubensson it is possible to see your children in your free time. The Swedish Football Association also pays for the players’ families and relatives for travel and accommodation to the games, so that the children can get to the venue with adults.
Germany’s Almuth Schult on the other hand, you can live with your partner and children.
Who will score the opening goal of the match and at what minute? Bet on the opening goalscorer of every European Championship match at Futistietäjä. The prize for the closest correct guess is a technical ball.