Melanie Leupolz doesn't believe equal pay is 'appropriate' for women's football

Chelsea midfielder Melanie Leupolz does not believe women footballers should be seeking equal pay at this stage of the game's development, saying she would prefer a focus on improving infrastructure.

The gender pay gap is a prevalent topic in almost every industry at present, and women's football is no different. It is particularly pertinent in the USA, where the women's national team - the most successful women's national team on the planet with a huge following - have been fighting to be paid as much as their male counterparts in the USMNT.

While the men's team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the USWNT won the most recent women's version in 2019 and received just £3.1m in prize money from a tournament total of £23.4m - around 10% of what France were awarded for lifting the men's trophy in Russia a year earlier, where the overall prize fund was £312m.

However, Germany international Leupolz does not believe equal pay should be a priority for women's football as it stands, with the 27-year-old saying not enough money is being brought in in the first place to justify earning 'millions'.

"I don't think equal pay is appropriate, because you have to see what the men bring in in terms of money and what the women bring in," Leupolz told Goal.

"Clubs are currently making a loss on the women's team. We have to invest now so that women's soccer can be self-supporting and profitable in a few years.

"Equal pay is therefore not appropriate, because with what justification should I earn millions now? At the weekends I play in front of 3,000 spectators."

Instead, the Chelsea midfielder believes there should be investment in the infrastructure of the women's game.

"I would rather wish that we train on good training grounds, play in nice stadiums and that the general conditions are the same," she continued.

"That involves fewer financial obligations and is easier to implement. This also makes it possible for women's football to be self-supporting. That's why it's not about salary, but about the conditions surrounding women's football."

Leupolz also revealed she played in mixed teams until she was a teenager, when she was no longer allowed to, and believes playing with the opposite sex helped to mould her game.

"I played with the boys until I was 14. Then I switched to a girls' team at TSV Tettnang because the regional FA no longer gave me special permission," she added.

"I would have had to play with the older boys, but they said that was too dangerous for girls. That's why I had to take that step, but it was okay. The girls were really good, we played in the highest youth league in Germany.

"The physicality and the fact that you have to make a decision quickly because they're much faster - that definitely shapes you [when playing with males], and you take that with you later when you get to the Bundesliga. Then the jump isn't quite as big."

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