My Best XI: Sari van Veenendaal

Following on from Anja Mittag and Lotta Schelin, former Arsenal and Netherlands goalkeeper Van Veenendaal is the latest to talk through her Best XI.

Sari van Veenendaal’s goalkeeping career took her right to the top. With her national team, she won the 2017 European Championships and two years later played in a World Cup final, while at club level she played for top teams such as Arsenal and Atlético Madrid.

In England, she won all three major domestic trophies as well as several leagues and cups back home in the Netherlands with Utrecht and FC Twente.

On an individual level, Van Veenendaal was named the best goalkeeper in the 2019 World Cup, two years after being voted into the team of the tournament when Netherlands won Euro 2017 in front of their home supporters.

Retiring last summer, the former shot-stopper now discusses some of the best players she spent time on the pitch with.

Van Veenendaal during the 2019 World Cup final. Image: Jonathan Moscrop / Sportimage

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GOALKEEPER

Emma Byrne

This is probably the most difficult one because obviously you don’t really play with them. It sounds really strange because I like my team mates, but at the end of the day it’s just one of us playing. I wrote down Emma and also Loes Geurts. It was very hard to decide which one is better, because they were really different.

I played with Emma at Arsenal and if you look up what she has done for the club, how long she played for Arsenal, her European games, clean sheets, how professional she was at that time, that was very impressive me to see. I came in to Arsenal in her last season and it was special for me to work with her in that period.

But I had so many camps and games with Loes too. I’d ask her 5000 questions a day, how to handle nerves, anything I wanted to know I asked her, so it’s kind of hard for me to pick.

DEFENDERS

Dominique Janssen

I played so many games with Dom at Arsenal and also with the Netherlands. I think she is technically very strong, very athletic and I know every day she works very hard to improve. She’s very focused on what she is doing and I think she can still grow a lot in the game. The results she has had wherever she’s gone and even right now with Wolfsburg, I’d definitely have her in my team.

If you see how she plays, everything works for whatever we needed in a game at that moment. She’s very strong, I think she’s one of those type of players that is just very important. She was always what we needed. We don’t maybe talk a lot about her, maybe she is underrated, but I would always put her in my team.

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Relevant Reads:

• Anja Mittag’s Best XI

• Lotta Schelin’s Best XI

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Leah Williamson

What can I say? I have known Leah since almost when she was a child. I met her, I don’t even know, seven or eight years ago, so she was a teenager. You have some players, especially at Arsenal, who are there for so many years, come through the system and they grow up there and they improve.

I love it when a player has a heart for the club and if you see what she has given the last few years, but even longer too, I think that’s so impressive and I would always put her in my team. I really like her as a player, as a person and I really like her family around her too, so I just hope she will be back soon.