Stuttgart

They lost a cup final 3–0 in May 2026. VfB Stuttgart's women had gone from the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg to a DFB-Pokal final against Bayern Munich, and finishing runners-up still meant the club had shared a pitch with the biggest name in the women's game less than five years after it existed at all.

The department itself dates only to 2021, built not from a youth pipeline but from a cooperation with VfB Obertürkheim, which handed over its playing rights. There was no gradual climb through junior football behind it — just a squad assembled from outside and pointed upward. Oberliga champions in 2023–24, Regionalliga Süd champions the year after, then champions of the 2. Frauen-Bundesliga in 2025–26 to reach the top flight for the first time. Stuttgart did it with signings rather than graduates — players such as Nicole Billa arriving with international pedigree rather than working through the club's own ranks, since there was no such rank structure yet to work through.

Captain Maximiliane Rall has carried a squad still short on shared history. The city derby against Stuttgarter Kickers exists on paper, but with the Kickers sitting in a lower division, it has none of the needle a Stadtderby usually carries.

Home matches are played at the Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau, a ground built for over 11,000, considerably smaller than the Neckarstadion the men's side fills across town, but big enough now to hold a support that has followed a team from regional football into the Bundesliga inside half a decade.