link. Football professionals and parental leave.
It was the unique combination that made Nella Fisher, 37, keep investing.
The club has not received this proposal before.
Ellie, nine months, is lying in the stroller asleep. Nella Fisher She settles on a chair outside the red house where she lives with her wife, Mika, and their two sons.
The 37-year-old midfielder possesses a unique solution to be able to continue his football career. She is on parental leave.
I think it’s of course very good for me to be able to continue playing football and spend more time with the kids than I did with Neo when he was young. It’s great for me and I think it’s good for Liverpool FC as well because I’ll keep playing, she says.
The suggestion came from Fisher himself. When the contract extension was due in the fall, I presented the plan to the club and there wasn’t much discussion.
– They only said that they had not received this proposal before, so they needed to think about it and discuss it among themselves. There wasn’t much controversy or “if you can’t play at one hundred percent, there’s nothing”. But they were a part of it and probably also realized themselves that it was something that would be needed in the future.
Concretely, this means that Fisher is running at 80 percent, and therefore misses one training session a week when she’s with the kids instead.
– It’s a challenge to get it all together but the coaching team is not very strict but they help and try to find solutions.
“I also need to collect it with the family”
Do you choose what day to be free or how you work?
– I can only say one day. I’m going out today because I have the right to. But that’s not how it should work, but we have a discussion with Andre (Jeglertz, editor’s trainer note).
– I also need to collect it with the family because Mika is also working at 80 percent. So sometimes he decides and sometimes I decide, but so far there have been no difficult discussions.
The sun rises over the farm outside Linköping. In the meadow below the house, three horses are eating and around the chair, the family dog Lusen punches around the chair during the interview.
It is an enduring mystery of family life with two young children to work together. Sometimes Nella has to leave Ellie at Micah’s job and then move on to training and sometimes Mika comes and leaves him in the ring.
– I’m very fortunate that she is trying her best to find solutions too or we find solutions together. Because it goes at 110.
If they do not come up with this solution, it is likely that a long and successful career will be over. Because as it appears now, Fisher doesn’t think she would have played if it had to be 100%.
– I do not think so. It’s tough so far because it was never on the table that this was the only option I had. But I don’t think so because I notice a difference in the relationship with Ellie in particular now because he’s so young versus Neo when he was that age.
What does family mean to you?
– very much. Definitely. It’s the number one priority and I’ve taken a completely different perspective on football, life and myself. This is what really matters.
Pregnancy policy introduced
Nilla Fischer’s solution with Linköpings FC is unique, but things happen around parenting issues in Swedish women’s football. BK Häcken and FC Rosengård have both introduced a pregnancy policy.
– I think this is the direction we should go. Then maybe he could have come earlier but sometimes you just have to be glad that it happened. I think it’s surprising that more and more clubs are trying to find solutions in different ways.
What do you think your solution might mean to others?
– That there are more players and clubs who see it possible to do this way while continuing to perform. My body feels great because I’ll run by myself if I feel like it when I’m on parental leave instead of another soccer session, she says and continues:
– I also think that even those who are not carrying the child see that I want to be on parental leave, I want to be with my children and that opportunity is there. I hope the doors open.
“I’ve been questioned about my vabb before”
Fischer hopes it will also open doors for men’s players, but she reacted when she read an interview with BK Häcken’s Alexander Waltsitas in Sportbladet’s Allsvenskan Bible. In a series of articles about life as a father and a professional, Walstas said he couldn’t think of a male player as a babysitter.
– In general, do not run away. I’ve heard it from the boys. Everyone thinks it’s a trick to avoid training, Falstas said.
– I was interrogated about my child before, but it is my right as a parent, and I mean if the child is sick, the child is sick. Why does all the responsibility fall on the partner’s shoulders? I don’t know how dangerous these glitches are but its really bad. She says and continues: Take your child if you want to have children:
– At LFC, they would never think she was raving because she was lazy. Or I’m now on parental leave because she wants to avoid training. This mentality does not exist in women’s football and I don’t think the mentality exists in men’s football either.
What does it look like to be the first to offer this solution?
– To be the first? I do not know what to say. this is funy. I didn’t think much of what it meant to be first except that it meant to be with the kids more.