Former NWSL goalkeeper Almuth Schult broke her silence about her experience as both a mother and international soccer player. As one of the world’s top goalies in women’s soccer, Schult recently said that her reluctant retirement in March 2025 felt “undignified” because clubs in Europe hesitate to take a chance on players who are moms. Schult’s contract with the NWSL’s Kansas City Current expired at the end of 2024, but she said she had at least another “one, two years at the highest level” left in her. She first began spending some time Stateside instead of the Bundesliga in her native Germany around her second pregnancy. “My career would presumably have taken a different course if I’d had the same support as I recently received in the U.S.,” Schult mused to a reporter for a German magazine. “I feel like in Europe, it is still not yet normal for a female soccer player to have children. Whether the clubs admit it or not, that’s my subjective impression,” she explained. “Many clubs worry that there could be adversity and difficulties with mothers, even though that doesn’t have to be the case.” Schult gave birth to twins in 2020 and returned to international and NWSL play before having another child in 2023. She’s currently pregnant with her fourth, which she believes is the issue European clubs have with her. “I was already out of contract after my second pregnancy,” the Olympian told Kicker in the interview. “No club believed I could still help, even though I had already proven it after my first pregnancy.” Schult told the publication that top European clubs only offered her third-string backup options and that any talks beyond that fell through. Since then, she’s spent time building a sports commentator career on German TV. Schult ended her career with a winning pedigree across multiple clubs and 66 Germany national team appearances. She was a mainstay for Bundesliga club Wolfsburg and began her National Women’s Soccer League stint with Angel City FC in 2022 before landing with the Current in 2024. The 34-year-old won many major titles throughout her career, including a European championship with the national team in 2013, a Champions League title in 2014, and her Olympic gold medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.