How Veerle Buurman went from boys' football to the Euros in two years

In 2023, Netherlands defender Veerle Buurman walked away from her local boys' team for the final time. Two years on, she's about to join Chelsea and could make her major tournament debut on Saturday..

Veerle Buurman played her local boys’ team for almost a decade at SC Bemmel.

Very few at this summer’s European Championships have enjoyed a rapid rise quite like the one Netherlands defender Veerle Buurman has experienced over the past two years.

The 19-year-old could even start her side’s first game against Wales on Saturday evening, which is incredible when you consider she was still playing boys’ football in her hometown of Bemmel just over two years ago.

Since then, she’s represented one of the Netherlands’ biggest clubs in PSV Eindhoven, quickly earning a move to Chelsea who she will join properly after the tournament, spending last season back at PSV on loan.

The town of Bemmel holds a population of just over 12,000, but Buurman was seemingly always destined for a career on the pitch, with both her older and younger brothers also fledgling young footballers.

For those who both played with her and coached her in the town’s local club, SC Bemmel, her rise is amazing, but also not a surprise.

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“I coached the Under 17s team and spent both those two years with Veerle,” recalls Marco Wientjes. “She played two years with us and then moved on to PSV, which was a great move for her.”

When Buurman first joined PSV though, she duelled her first full year with the club still training and playing with SC Bemmel, meaning she played with boys until 2023, just two years out from heading to her first major women’s tournament.

“I was happy she stayed with us when she first went to PSV. There was a discussion that she was absolutely too good to lose, so we did our best that she could stay with us while she was with PSV’s team.

“She was always one of the best players among the guys. In the first year we played at a very high level, we were the champions, second year we went to a higher league, and you saw she also started to physically improve and could still match it. Without any problems, she could hold her own.”

One of her oldest friends, Cas Steenbergen, always grew up in Bemmel and played for the same team as Buurman stretching back eight years and was part of the same Under 17s team as the defender, also playing under Wientjes.