FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German women's football club from

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. The club currently plays in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, the highest level of women's football in Germany. Carl Zeiss Jena played regional women's football since 2016/17 but became more prominent, when it merged with FF USV Jena in 2020.

History

HSG Uni Jena, USV Jena, FF USV Jena

After becoming the last East German women's football champion in 1991, Uni Jena was admitted to the

after the reunification of Germany. They were relegated after one season and have remained in the 2nd tier league (then Regionalliga, later 2nd Bundesliga) since then. In 2003 Jena became champions of the northeastern Regionalliga but failed to achieve promotion to the Bundesliga. The decisive match was lost at home against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

. A year later they qualified for the newly founded 2nd Bundesliga and were grouped into the southern division. In 2004 a new women's club was founded, so the USV Jena became the FF USV Jena (FF for Frauenfußball, women's football) In 2005 and 2006 they came in third, in 2007 even in second place. In the 2007–08 season, Jena finished first in the 2nd Bundesliga Süd and got promoted to the Bundesliga. In 2008–09 the managed a 9th place and improved to an 8th place the next season. The team's biggest success was reaching the final of the 2009–10 Frauen DFB-Pokal, where they lost 0–1 to

FCR 2001 Duisburg FCR 2001 Duisburg (full name: ''Fußballclub Rumeln 2001 Duisburg'') was a German women's football club from Duisburg. The first team played in the Bundesliga. They originate from a women's team formed in 1977 under the umbrella of FC Rumeln-Kald ...

. From 1 July 2020 on, the club will play under a new name, after agreeing to a merger with the men's football club

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Ober ...

Carl Zeiss's women's section

Carl Zeiss entered a women's team in the Thüringenliga, the 4th level, for the first time in the 2017/18 season. It remained in that league for three years, finishing first eventually. The team was created by transferring over USV Jena III. USV Jena kept their first two teams.

Merger with Carl Zeiss

After the 2019/20 season FF USV Jena, transferred all their teams to

, in order to combine forces and benefit of the larger club with its image.

Current squad

Staff

* Head coach: Christopher Heck * Assistant coach: Thilo Osterbrink, Susann Utes * Goalkeeper coach: Stephan Fleischhauer * Fitness coach: Martin Buder

Former notable players

* Anna Blässe * Carolin Schiewe * Ivonne Hartmann * Sabrina Schmutzler * Carol Carioca *

Genoveva Añonma ''Genoveva'', Op. 81, is an opera in four acts by Robert Schumann in the genre of German Romanticism with a libretto by Robert Reinick and the composer. The only opera Schumann ever wrote, it received its first performance on 25 June 1850 at ...

n *

Adjoa Bayor Adjoa Bayor (born 17 May 1979) is a Ghanaian former footballer who played as a midfielder. She has captained the Ghana women's national team. International career Bayor was part of the Ghana women's national football team at the 1999 FIFA Wom ...

Abby Erceg Abby May Erceg (born 20 November 1989) is a professional New Zealand footballer who plays as a defender. She is the captain of the North Carolina Courage in the National Women's Soccer League. She has previously played for Chicago Red Stars ...

* Fata Salkunič * Lara Keller * Hannah Keane

References

External links

* * Women's football clubs in Germany Football clubs in Thuringia Sport in Jena University of Jena Association football clubs established in 2004 2004 establishments in Germany Frauen-Bundesliga clubs {{Germany-footyclub-stub