(Reuters) – Netherlands women’s team captain and goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal said on Friday that the time had to come to retire.
The 32-year-old played 90 games for the national team since her debut in 2011 and was also the keeper for Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.
Van Veenendaal, who won the Golden Glove award at the 2019 World Cup and was part of the team’s European Championship triumph in 2017, said in a message on Twitter that the time was right to do different things.
“I no longer want to be on the pitch every day, and to get the most out of it every day,” she said.
“It’s time to explore different things. It’s my decision to say goodbye and this moment feels as the right moment.”
Van Veenendaal suffered a shoulder injury in the Netherlands’ first game of this year’s Women’s European Championship and sat out the remainder of the Dutch campaign.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk; Editing by Toby Davis)
