German National Women's Soccer Team Members Pose For Playboy To Promote Sport

This is one way to promote the Women's World Cup.

Recently, 5 members of the German National Women's U-20 team posed erotically for the German edition of Playboy, in hopes of promoting the sport just weeks before the Women's World Cup kicks off. The idea was to show the more beautiful side of women's sports, as opposed to the "butch" stereotype that they feel shrouds the game, according to The Local.

Bayern Munichplayers Annika Doppler, Ivana Rudelic and Julia Simic as well as Wolfsburg's Selina Wagner and Gutersloh's Kristina Gessat all stripped down for the shoot.

"With these photos, we want to disprove the cliche that all female footballers are butch," Gessat told The Local.

The Deutscher Fussball-Bund (DFB), soccer's governing body in Germany, apparently had nothing to do with the shoot, and according to the Daily Mail, Playboy went right to the players (who are all aged 19 to 22) and not their teams.

Whether or not there's any backlash over these photos remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure: they definitely helped spread the word on the Women's World Cup.

You can see more here, including the full cover, from the Daily mail (less NSFW).

Or you can see more shots here on Playboy Germeny's NSFW site (more NSFW).

Comments

[netzwerg]

12:31 PM on 06/28/2011

"Why can't they attract attention using their skills?"

They do use their skills, Team Germany is the current world champion in women's football, twice in a row.

[frankystein12]

11:50 PM on 06/26/2011

Very erotic I have to say!

[mintylaramie]

06:08 PM on 06/18/2011

When we said female footballers were butch, we meant American football. But by all means, take lots of nekkid pics. Are u ladies on twitter?

[Always Conservative]

01:17 AM on 06/18/2011

Das ist heiß...

[pokypaul86]

03:28 PM on 06/17/2011

How sad that in the states, such a simple and innocent display would be met with an outrage by an army of sexually repressed, never had an orgasm soccer moms.

[liberaldawg]

01:54 PM on 06/17/2011

Hope there were lots of scissor kicks.

[Mio Jones]

12:44 AM on 06/17/2011

These photos are so harmless! We can see more nudity on commercials here in German TV lol

[banker67]

12:17 PM on 06/17/2011

Agree with Mio Jones. They're adults. They can decide if they want the Playboy job. If it reflects at all on German sports or their team, I think it's positive and kind of charming. Maybe the pictures will lead to good jobs when they leave the game. More power to them.

And for the record, my no-longer-40 male body is available for similar shoots pretty much any time, especially for nice paycheck. If the pictures embarrass my nation or even my state, so be it.

[olafTheAwesome]

08:30 AM on 06/16/2011

"With these photos, we want to disprove the cliche that all female footballers are butch,"

I call BS on the reason being given for the photo shoot. The main reason was simply to fill the coffers of the German edition of Playboy.

[Kasonde Katongo]

05:24 AM on 06/16/2011

big mistake, posing nude will only attract the wrong crowd. football/soccer is family sport they should instead try to focus on marketing to young women. young woman are biggest consumers if the can get them interested in the sport that will help them grow. posing nude will only attract only men and not all men will be interested maybe only Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole type of men lol

[TXconfidnz]

08:58 AM on 06/16/2011

Well, Germany is a lot less a sexually repressed country than the U.S. where citizens, young and old, understand what's underneath that shirt or those pants and don't resort to immature "shame, shame!" judgments. It's commonplace in Germany to see women topless at the beach and lakes and everybody's fine with it.

[Icleaks]

02:44 AM on 06/16/2011

They might be increasing the visibility of their sport to the demographic that matters the most - men (boys really) between what 18-34.

[Wide Stance]

01:56 AM on 06/16/2011

Hey Playboy, I think the Swedes, Finns, Italians, French, Spanish and Dutch play soccer too. Just thinking aloud....

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

12:50 AM on 06/16/2011

Germeny? Sheesh.

[hoagie76]

08:20 AM on 06/16/2011

got something against germany?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

11:08 PM on 06/16/2011

No. Just editers who can't spel it.

[Shukr]

12:27 AM on 06/16/2011

Exploiting women again for the sake of ones own benefit. Why can't they attract attention using their skills? Why let their bodies be used? Oh wait, I forgot, it's "empowering".

[PtownBen]

04:45 AM on 06/16/2011

Who are you to judge that their bodies are being exploted? no one put a gun to their heads to make them do it. I hear this speech from many muslim friends. They use this argument to make the conclusion that Islam empowers women by protecting their bodies and their dignity by not allowing them to be used as s ex objects, and that's a bunch of nonsense. They chose to do it, you clicked on the article so you liked it yourself, God forbid a woman gives you impure thoughts, it speaks pages about you and not about them.

[CountWestwest]

09:16 AM on 06/16/2011

They have already shown their skill. The five young women play for what is probably the strongest and most competitive women's soccer team in the world. On the Playboy interview (yes, there are more than photos in Playboy) one of the players said she was constantly annoyed because people kept telling her she didn't look like a female soccer player, as if all female players were ugly and "butch" (Mannweiber). In the video interviews done during the shoot (in German) they all are well spoken and come across as intelligent young women who are confident of their athletic achievements, as well as of their bodies. None seem to feel "exploited".

[Seafarer61]

12:07 AM on 06/16/2011

Their reasoning to pose nude seems a bit strange. It's almost as if they are saying "we have great bodies so we're going to prove we're not lesbians" which sort of implies there are no lesbians with great bodies.

The folly of youth.

[Maderous]

04:28 AM on 06/16/2011

If I read it correctly, they aren't worried about being considered lesbians. They are concerned that they and all other female athletes are being stereotyped as "butch lesbians." And I will say that they have successfully dispelled that stereotype for me.

[FoxSpews]

12:02 AM on 06/16/2011

When will female athletes realize that selling your body is NOT the way to promote equality in athletics? Objectifying women is completely contrary to garnering respect for the female body as an athletic contender; rather, it defiles it to the status of a worthless centerfold. Take some ownership of your sport and try setting a good example for women by making an intelligent, self-respecting, female-bolstering decision instead of acting like a desperate reality TV star. Sick, sick, sick.