Orange keeper Van Domselaar was actually not allowed to play football: ‘It made her sad’

• Thierry Boon

  At the European Women’s Football Championship in England

Again she took part in the lap of honor through the stadium with a big smile. So far, for Daphne van Domselaar, it has been a dream of a European Championship. But if it had been up to her parents before, she would now be on a volleyball court.

Since a week, the name Daphne van Domselaar has suddenly become known: due to the loss of captain Sari van Veenendaal, 22-year-old Van Domselaar is suddenly the first keeper of Orange.

She impresses with some good saves during her comeback against Sweden. “I didn’t have time to be nervous at all,” she says that evening in Sheffield. On the other side of the North Sea, nerves are screaming through a North Holland living room.

Van Domselaar’s parents are anxious to see their daughter fill in. Just in front of the television in Langedijk. Mother Elly works at a school and cannot get a day off. The holiday doesn’t start there until Friday.

In front of the tube, Elly glows with pride that evening. “Even though she’s 22, it’s still your little girl,” she looks back over the phone from the Netherlands. Only late after the game is there contact between mother and daughter.

“I texted her that she should call when she had time, because I wouldn’t sleep anyway. It took a while, because she had to go from interview to interview. When I finally spoke to her, she also stayed so cool. Only at night the realization came to her, then she woke up early.”

In the second game on Wednesday evening, against Portugal, there is time for Van Domselaar to be nervous. “I felt healthy tension,” she confesses. “But as soon as I got on the field, there was peace. I have confidence in the team and myself, so I don’t have to be nervous.”

Van Domselaar has been living alone in Hengelo for about five years, together with other players of record champion FC Twente. She is calm, ambitious, critical of herself, does not necessarily have to be in the foreground and is always cheerful.

She grew up in Langedijk, a village above Alkmaar, in the West Friesland region. “As a toddler she already wanted to play football, but I stopped that a bit …”, says her mother. “We live in a village with a lot of water, so I wanted her to get her swimming certificate.”

And there is another reason. “Daphne always played with boys, started to dress like a boy and really felt like a boy. Then I thought: if she also starts playing football with boys, it will be too much,” explains Elly.

“I was a bit one of the guys“, she says herself. “So I had to play a sport that also had girls, but at that time there was no girls’ football team near us.”

European Championship: view the summary of the Netherlands – Portugal

Van Domselaar tries other sports through school. Fencing, kickboxing and volleyball, which she appears to have a talent for. If I can’t play football, I can play volleyball, she thought.

“After a few years she had had enough and asked if she could please play football. I saw that it made her sad. She finished the volleyball season and then started playing football. We couldn’t make her happier.”

Van Domselaar joins LSVV, the Langedijker Sports Association Forward. She enters the girls’ team, where they do not have a permanent goalkeeper and therefore take turns under the bar. Elly: “In the second game she came on target and she never went out again.”

After five years LSVV, Telstar picks up the goalkeeper talent. In 2017, then trainer Tommy Stroot persuades her to go to FC Twente. “No one knew her then”, agent Leoni Blokhuis remembers.

“Until she took part in a positional game there on her first day and told the hard core of Twente to talk to the coach: who is this? What can she say about football!”

Van Domselaar is also very skilled off the field. She has a VWO diploma, has completed a course in sports psychology and is now pursuing a higher professional education degree in industrial engineering.

Partly on the advice of her parents, she has opted for an education that has nothing to do with sports, so that she can always go in another direction, if goalkeeping ultimately fails.

Although that – certainly also with this European Championship – seems to be going well. “Several international top clubs have already reported to us in recent months”, Blokhuis acknowledges. “We’ve been talking about that.”

“But Daphne thinks carefully about what she is doing and whether it is at the right time. That characterizes her. She has just signed for a year at Twente. You never know, of course, but knowing her she wants to focus on title prolongation with Twente. She’s right there.”

Before the European Championships, Van Domselaar told about her relationship with Sari van Veenendaal.

Van Domselaar before the European Championship: ‘Sari of the older generation of goalkeepers, we are asked more about the ball’

From the last group match, Sunday against Switzerland, Van Domselaar’s parents have been there in England, says Elly. “We have booked a one-way ticket, so it depends on Orange how long we stay.”

It’s a good thing that after much insistence they let their daughter play football instead of volleyball. Although: “With volleyball you do everything with your hands and the ball, she now benefits from that”, Elly laughs.

My daughter agrees. “I think goalkeeping and volleyball are quite related. I used to be able to catch a nice ball so I think it helped, haha.”