Just over a year ago, Tess Lieder gave birth to her daughter Flo. In the meantime, she had no club for a while and now the goalkeeper from Heerhugowaard is already preparing for the World Cup with the handball players. “It was a hectic year,” says the 30-year-old in the run-up to the tournament.
Mother Tess celebrated her daughter’s first birthday last weekend. “I was able to be there on the birthday and that was very reassuring for my mother’s heart,” says the goalkeeper, who has been playing for Borussia Dortmund since last summer. “Theoretically, I haven’t been playing matches for six months yet, but I am fit and have a good feeling. So I am very happy.”
The handball player has been in a relationship with footballer Mart Lieder for a few years now. “If I knew how happy motherhood would make me, I would have wanted it sooner,” she says. “But that was not possible. We are sometimes still looking for the balance between two top sports parents and parenthood. We have very kind help from people around us and that is getting better and better.”
Underdog role
Lieder is preparing for the World Cup in Denmark, Sweden and Norway with the Dutch team. This will be her fifth World Cup international and in the past she won gold, silver and bronze with the Dutch team. This year expectations are slightly less high, but Lieder does not want to push the Netherlands into the ‘underdog role’. “It is of course nice that you are not all harping on: if it is not gold, you don’t have to come back.”
At the World Cup, the Netherlands is in a group with Argentina, Congo and the Czech Republic. The first match is on Thursday, November 30 in Fredrikshavn against the Argentinians. The World Cup final will take place on Sunday, December 17.