Magdalena Eriksson is simultaneously playing for Bayern Munich's women's side and carrying out scouting duties for the club's men's team — a dual role the Swedish defender has now addressed at length in a piece published by the Guardian.
Eriksson writes that she first mentioned the scouting work during an appearance as an analyst on Swedish broadcaster SVT, where she was covering Bayern's Champions League fixture against Real Madrid. The reaction that followed, she says, caught her slightly off guard — not because it was unwelcome, but because she had hoped the arrangement might seem more ordinary than it apparently did.
"Why is this such big news? It shouldn't be," she writes, in a piece attributed to her own voice. She adds, however, that she understands why it attracted attention and that she is glad the response has been largely positive.
The broader significance, in Eriksson's reading, is what the role might signal for women working within men's football structures. She describes the opportunity as one she hopes will prompt other clubs to consider similar arrangements — giving women who want to build careers beyond playing the chance to do so before they have retired. The scouting work, she suggests, has been both enjoyable and professionally valuable.
Eriksson has been one of the more prominent figures in women's club football over the past several years, and her move to Bayern placed her at a club with the infrastructure and ambition to support exactly this kind of cross-department involvement. That a women's player would contribute formally to the men's recruitment process remains unusual, which is precisely what has made this particular arrangement newsworthy — even if Eriksson herself would prefer it were not.
Her comments arrive at a moment when the conversation around women's representation in coaching and technical roles within men's football is gaining some momentum, though progress has been incremental. Eriksson appears conscious of that context, framing her own situation less as an individual achievement and more as a possible template. Whether Bayern's model influences how other clubs structure their operations remains to be seen, but her willingness to speak openly about it adds a rare first-hand account to what has until now been a largely theoretical debate.