Alisha Lehmann is the most followed female football player worldwide because she is one of the hottest players in women’s football and a social media phenomenon. She has taken advantage of her unique position to advocate for equality in the face of the obvious gender pay disparity in football.
Lehmann and her partner, Brazilian Douglas Luiz, departed Aston Villa in July 2024 in order to sign a three-year contract with Juventus. A couple has signed, one for the men’s team and the other for the women’s, which is unusual in the world of football, according to Essentially Sports.
The Italian club wanted to strengthen the midfield with the Brazilian. As Juventus News reports, one of the conditions that the midfielder set to sign with the Bianconeri was also the inclusion of Lehmann, a signing that also seemed interesting given her great quality.
But just a few months after her arrival in Italy, the Swiss star has not hesitated to comment on the obvious differences between the contract she signed and that of her boyfriend at the same club.
In an interview with the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, Lehmann said: “After training, I often say to Douglas that it’s unfair. We do the same work, but he earns a hundred thousand times more than me.”
It’s something that touches me because I’m a woman. Obviously we still have a long way to go because maybe there will never be equal pay. I think it takes time and the will of many who must really want a change in this sense,” added the Juventus player.
She also took the opportunity to defend women’s performance in the sport: “It’s not fair. When someone comes to me and jokes about women’s football, I always say, ‘Have you ever seen a game?’ Probably not.”
And, as Lehmann emphasized in her justification, “if you watch a game, you will realize how good and passionate we are. I don’t know why people still think it is like that. It’s 2024 and maybe some people are still asleep and living behind the mountain or in trees, I don’t know.”
According to Transfermarkt, Douglas Luiz was transferred to Juventus for €51.5 million (approximately £44.5 million, $55.5 million), while the Swiss player joined for just €500,000 (around £430,000, $540,000). As reported by Mauro Munno, Luiz earns €8.5 million (about £7.3 million, $9.1 million) annually, while Lehmann (though her current salary is unknown) earns only €70,000 (approximately £60,000, $75,000), excluding sponsorship contracts.
On a media level, Douglas Luiz can hold his own in a sport that is known and admired by men all over the world, especially for a team like Juventus Turin. However, on social media, he is far behind Lehmann.
The Swiss football player has more than 17 million followers on Instagram and more than 11 million on TikTok, while the Brazilian is light years behind her with 1.5 million followers on Instagram – something that also benefits the Italian club itself.
Nevertheless, she told La Gazzetta dello Sport, her priority is football and not becoming an internet icon: “I don’t live like a star, but like everyone else. When people see you on social media, they think you live a different life, but that’s not true.”
“My life is very ordinary. I go home, I cook. I do the same things as everyone else. Of course, it’s nice when people recognize you on the street and say: ‘Hello Alisha, how are you?'”
“Social networks? For me they are a way to show football, but also life. I have also used it to promote English football. And now I want to help women’s football in Italy,” she stressed.
“I’m a player and I give my best on the pitch. The time I spend on social media is nothing compared to the time I spend on the pitch. Football is my whole life. I think people are picky, but I don’t spend much of my free time on social media. I didn’t really have the ambition to become famous,” Lehmann concluded.
While it’s clear that there is still a huge pay gap between men’s and women’s footballers, as more superstars like Lehmann emerge in the game, it’s going to be harder for clubs to justify the disproportional wages between the men’s and women’s teams.
