Before going pro down under, Danelle Tan offers inside look at her life in German football

DORTMUND, Germany: She will always be Singapore’s first female footballer to play in a European league and then the first Asian female player in Borussia Dortmund.

Danelle Tan’s move last year to what is, arguably, Germany’s number two football club even had some scribes stating that she would be donning the same kit previously worn by players such as Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski.

But there was a massive difference: Danelle was not paid, let alone making a living playing football, as the women’s team have still to turn professional.

“We do get a bit of gas cards (to cover transport costs). But because I don’t use the car — I just walk to training — I don’t benefit from that,” she told CNA.

All that is about to change, now that she is signing a professional contract with an A-League club in the top division of Australian women’s football. The official announcement will be made soon.

Before she left Dortmund, the 19-year-old welcomed CNA to join her for an inside look at her experience playing in the fifth tier of the German football league, in the On The Red Dot series I’m Singaporean.

Dortmund women’s team were formed in 2021 and were climbing the leagues when Danelle joined as a midfielder. Only the top-flight Frauen Bundesliga is fully professional, plus some of the women’s teams in the second division, she pointed out.

Nonetheless, she got to train in state-of the-art facilities such as the Footbonaut, one of only four in the world.

It is a cage 14 metres by 14 metres, where a machine launches balls at random — from every angle and at different speeds, up to 100 kilometres per hour — to test players’ skills.

In the centre circle, a player must control the balls and shoot them into a lit target.

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