After a career of fourteen years and 91 international matches, Oranjeleeuwin and PSV goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal will stop playing football immediately. The 32-year-old sportswoman announced that decision on Friday.
Tears were in her eyes when she had to be exchanged after twenty minutes in the first European Championship match. Her shoulder was the culprit. What Van Veenendaal already knew at the time was that the match against Sweden also meant the last in her football career.
“That flashed through my head very quickly,” the Orange captain looks back when she sat on the grass of Bramall Lane, the stadium of Sheffield United. “But I especially wanted Daphne (van Domselaar, ed.) to be ready to go on the field. Those were my last words. When I was in the dressing room, I knew: this was it. That hurt.”
Door was still ajar
The decision to end her career after the European Championship in England was already made before the final tournament. “But I did leave the door ajar, so that I wouldn’t put all the pressure on the European Championship. And also in case my feeling were to change, that I would still have the chance to continue playing football. Only that moment did not come. I notice more and more that I support my decision.”
The feeling that Van Veenendaal, who was proclaimed the best goalkeeper in the world in 2019, is talking about, was the decisive factor for her to stop. “I’m a footballer because I like it a lot. I’ve also always signed one-year contracts and said that if I didn’t like it anymore at the end of the year, I would stop.”
Time for other things
This year, however, it was different for the PSV keeper, who had ended up in Eindhoven two years ago via FC Utrecht, FC Twente, Arsenal and Atlético Madrid. “I couldn’t answer that question with full conviction for the first time.” she then decided to keep control in her own hands and take the plunge.
“I just notice that I leave a lot of nice things in life because I am experiencing my sport so intensely,” explains Van Veenendaal. “I am more and more looking for the fun moments and at the moment I don’t experience them enough in football.”
Now Van Veenendaal mainly wants to experience fun moments outside of football and she already knows exactly what she will do first. “Travelling,” she says resolutely. “My partner and I have always dreamed of traveling by van. We’re finally going to do that. It’s something I’m really looking forward to, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and never was able to.”