‘Take your friends with you’: Wamser promotes amateur football – praise from Völler and Neuendorf

"As a young child, it was really great meeting up with others to play football," enthused Wamser, who was happy to meet all requests for photos and autographs from younger and older friends alike following the talk: "I still play football today mainly because it’s incredible fun – and I believe that goes for nearly everybody else." She then made an appeal to all girls interested in football: "Take your friends with you and go to a club and it can even be a lads club at the start." Wamser played for the male youth teams at her hometown club TuS Grastrup-Retzen in the district of Lippe for several years.

Nearly a decade later, she was signed by Bayer 04 from Eintracht Frankfurt in July – and she joined the pre-season preparations at the start of August after just ten days holiday following the European Championships. Wamser played for Germany at the tournament in Switzerland where she progressed to the semi-finals and played her way into the limelight.

Völler: "a brilliant addition" – praise from Neuendorf too

An impressive performance that was not lost on Völler: "She was thrown into the deep end and did a brilliant job," said the former Bayer 04 sporting director and managing director sport full of appreciation: "She is great in challenges and a brilliant addition to the Leverkusen team." He wished Wamser great success for the Bundesliga season opener on 6 September in front of a crowd of 45,000 away to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena and he added: "Keep it up!"

And DFB president Bernd Neuendorf, who was also at the Euros in Switzerland, was full of praise. "When the captain Giulia Gwinn got injured, Carlotta came in for her and impressed straightaway. She established herself as a first choice and produced great performances." The wing back admitted she is still processing her experiences. "It all went very quickly being called up to the national team and suddenly there was a huge European Championships with full stadiums, a great atmosphere and more minutes on the pitch than I thought," said Wamser. "I will never forget that experience."

DFB campaign for Amateur football

The reason for the panel discussion at the ground of the district league team from Hürtgen of the Middle Rhine Football Association was the second nationwide club campaign organised by the DFB and its 21 state associations. In the DFB-Punktespiel the almost 24,000 clubs in Germany, as was the case in the men's Euros in Germany last year, can now collect points with each completed activity in club development and thereby win attractive awards. In 2024, 4,650 clubs from across the country took part in the DFB campaign representing 20% of all clubs.