Like this is so so bad
Da Mie Leth Jans i Manchester City blev indlemmet i en 'fat club', udviklede hun en spiseforstyrrelse, fortæller hun.
National team profile got an eating disorder when she involuntarily became a member of the players' 'fat club'
When Mie Leth Jans in Manchester City was incorporated into a 'fat club', she developed an eating disorder, she says.
In 2017, Mie Leth Jans helped win EC silver for Denmark, and a few days later she made the leap to the English league and Manchester City.
She was chasing to win the Champions League and it was "a dream to have to play in the conditions" that the club offers the players, she told the club's website.
But even though the conditions were good, Mie Leth Jans developed an eating disorder during her time in Manchester, she says to DR .
As a youngster on the national team, it was taboo to talk about several players losing significant weight and that several leading figures on the team showed signs of being ill, says Mie Leth Jans.
But it wasn't until she took the leap to England that she experienced firsthand what that meant.
If you didn't live up to the standard in Manchester City, didn't hit the scales, you were incorporated into what the players called a 'fat club'. A club for the so-called fat players, where the only way out was a lower fat percentage, she says.
- We had exercise bikes in a gym, where you sat like a monkey in a cage. We had to sit there every day before breakfast, half an hour to 45 minutes, to burn extra calories before breakfast.
- The more I pushed myself to lose weight, the more I could see that no matter what I did, I would never get out of that club, says Mie Leth Jans.
Mie Leth Jans' focus on diet and weight became so fanatical during her time at Manchester City that it was only when a nutritionist told her that she was starving herself and that it should stop for the moment that she took it seriously.
She left Manchester City in 2019 with the certainty that she was far from the only one at the club who became ill from the great focus on weight, she says.
DR has been in contact with Manchester City, who will not go into the specific story, but in a written statement says the following:
- The mental well-being of our players is just as important as their physical well-being, and it is a subject that we take extremely seriously when managing the players' well-being at the club.
- If an issue was raised by a player, it would be resolved immediately with the highest level of care offered.
In addition to an eating disorder, Mie Leth Jans has also developed panic disorder during her football career.
In June, a report from England showed that mental disorders such as anxiety, eating disorders and depression are highly prominent in the top two female football ranks.
As many as 36 percent of 115 players thus showed symptoms of an eating disorder, and several former English national team players have recently been open about the mental disorders that the great focus on body and weight is instrumental in creating.
Among others, Fara Williams, who has played 177 games for England, has experienced the culture from within the top English division, the Women's Super League, in the same way as Mie Leth Jans.
- I always thought there was a problem in women's football, Fara Williams told the BBC in June .
- You are tested every time you go to training camp, and if you are not below a certain body fat percentage, you get into a 'fat club'.
- In my opinion, as a professional, it is crazy to label something as a 'fat club'.
- But it was a term that was openly used in the big clubs in the Women's Super League.
Fara Williams is supported by Matt Lawson, who for over 20 years has worked as a dietitian associated with the English players' association PFA.
- Everyone involved in football has certainly seen an increase in football-related eating disorders over the past 20 years, She told the BBC in March .
Although Mie Leth Jans is currently enjoying life with Gjensidige Ligaen's top team, HB Køge, the time from Manchester City is no further away than that she still has to work on herself to keep both anxiety and eating disorders in check.
Every day she lies on her foam roller, moves back and forth on the floor, no phone, just herself, an inner dialogue and calm breathing.
She can handle the years of focusing on weight , but not forget.
- I think that if I switched to another club where there was a focus on it, it would come back right away.
- I step on the scales every day because it was a part of me at the time, and then I look in the mirror a lot. I'm just critical of not being thin enough.
What do you think about the fact that you have struggled with anxiety and an eating disorder because of football?
- It has helped make me who I am today, and it has made me aware of my values. But it is extremely sad to have to go through those things, and I don't wish it on anyone else, says Mie Leth Jans.
