Daphne van Domselaar: ‘I’m ready to show my best and work hard for that starting spot’

Despite emerging as a starting goalkeeper at 19 for FC Twente, Arsenal’s new signing feels her journey truly started elsewhere.

“I always said that I wanted to go to England one day, but going into Euro 2022 that wasn’t something that was on my mind,” Daphne (pronounced Daph-nuh) van Domselaar tells The Athletic.

“I’d only played one game for the Dutch national team beforehand, but the Euros was almost the starting point for my career. Before, England seemed like a faraway dream but soon afterwards I realised it could be my future in a year or two, which was crazy.”

Van Domselaar started the 2022 European Championship, hosted in England, as the Netherlands’ backup to former Arsenal goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal. But an injury to Van Veenendaal in the opening game against Sweden thrust Van Domselaar into the limelight. She responded by using the tournament as a platform to display her talent.

🇳🇱 @DomselaarDaphne vs France 💪🧱

Sum up 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 performance in 1 word 👇#WEURO2022 | @oranjevrouwen pic.twitter.com/L4SpBjo02m

— UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 (@WEURO2025) July 24, 2022

After becoming her country’s standout player at that competition, the interest in Van Domselaar came flooding in. But the ‘keeper decided to stay with Twente, where she won eight major honours, for another season before joining Aston Villa in the Women’s Super League in 2023.

Having been admired by top clubs across Europe, Van Domselaar, now 24, has chosen Arsenal as her new club after they triggered a buyout clause in her Villa contract. Her 27 international caps (nine at major tournaments), which came after Van Veenendaal’s injury and subsequent retirement, and 130 appearances at club level resulted in a Ballon d’Or nomination last year.

“As a goalkeeper, it can be hard to earn a spot and get minutes when you’re younger,” Arsenal’s new number 14 says, “because goalkeepers often start playing more consistently in their mid-20s compared to outfield players.

“After the Euros, I was not mentally prepared to go abroad, so I needed another year to settle and think about the next step in my career — which is why I went to Aston Villa and why I’m at Arsenal now. It feels like a logical step for me now, to join such a big club. There’s a big difference between the Eredivisie and WSL, so before I could join a big club, I thought I needed to show I could perform at this level first.

“Now I feel like I’ve got a lot of experience, especially with the national team, so I’m ready to show my best and work hard for that starting spot.”

In addition to proving she can perform in the WSL, the three-time Eredivisie champion sees her year at Villa as important for two reasons. Off the pitch, the tight-knit culture helped her settle into a new country, while on the pitch she learned how much more involved goalkeepers are in WSL matches compared to those in the Eredivisie — almost acting as an extra centre-back at times.

Stylistically, that overlapped with what Arsenal and their head coach, Jonas Eidevall, wanted. The Swede has previously spoken about wanting variation in his No 1 options, with former Arsenal and now-Aston Villa goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo’s distribution having been seen as complementary to mainstay Manuela Zinsberger, who signed a new contract in January.

“Jonas and I had conversations about how I performed last season with Villa and my style of play,” Van Domselaar says. “As a goalkeeper, I love to play from the back. I love to be dominant in the box and we both match in the way I like to play and the way Arsenal play.

“We see a long future together in that I’m still young, and you want to go to one of the best clubs and stay there as long as possible if you feel like it’s the right place. Through those conversations, I felt like this was the right place.

“Of course, you want minutes — but you also want to play at a club where you can win trophies and play in the Champions League. My biggest dream ever is to win the Champions League, and Arsenal showed in the 2022-23 season how close they were to a final (reaching extra time of their semi-final with Wolfsburg).

“I definitely want to develop myself as a person and go on an adventure to the unknown to see what I can do.”

Van Domselaar’s first steps in north London came a couple of weeks ago. International team-mate Victoria Pelova — one familiar face to the Dutch shot-stopper — was not present when the new signing explored her new headquarters, but Van Domselaar still had a positive reception.

“I just loved the training ground — everything was so professional, even down to the way they mix the women’s and men’s teams together,” she says. “I had a warm welcome and even met Win the dog, which was a highlight. So I feel like I almost knew everyone.

Daphne van Domselaar meets Win at Arsenal’s training ground (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

“Vic wasn’t in because all the players had a week off, so I only met the staff and Win. I will meet everyone on Monday (July 29), but I spoke to Vic and Viv (Miedema) about Arsenal and what they felt about the club. They were both so positive about the team, where they lived, how warm and family-like the club is, which really helped me make the decision.”

Similar to Pelova, who was a competitive chess player growing up, Van Domselaar has a different side to her which could explain the methodical steps she has taken in her career since shining at the Euros two years ago.

“I’m a bit of a nerd,” she says, with a laugh. “As a kid, I used to play with Lego all day long. I still have some boxes upstairs and recently they brought some adult Lego on the market, so I thought I would try it again. I had some team-mates at Aston Villa who were also into Lego, so we started that hobby again together.

“I’ve just made a globe that’s really cool and an art piece of a frame; I’m proud of the globe. I like to make Lego that fits in my interior as well, so I can display it.

“That can seem a bit boring but I like to put my mind off football sometimes — no phone, nothing, just the puzzle and a cup of coffee. Other than that, I’m quite boring. That’s what represents me.”

Van Domselaar saves against South Africa at the 2023 World Cup (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)

After spending time at Arsenal’s training ground, Van Domselaar also visited Emirates Stadium, where she played for Villa in Arsenal’s comeback victory last October, with the home side scoring two goals in added time to win 2-1.

Arsenal played six WSL games at the Emirates last season and have made the stadium the home of their women’s team for 2024-25, with a plan to host 11 matches. The steps Arsenal have taken off the pitch to reach that point was another factor in Van Domselaar’s decision to join.

“I was impressed then — and even more now,” she says. “Just thinking about how that will be my new home next season is insane. You see how the game has grown in the last few years and Arsenal are one of the first ones to get those attendance records. Being part of that will be insane.

“During the game, you’re not thinking about the fans and everything around you but afterwards you think, ‘Damn, it was really cool playing in front of that many people’.

“It can be a bit intimidating, especially if they (Arsenal) score against you, so I can’t wait to experience that from the other side and be cheered on. That game (the 2-1 win over Villa) was around 35,000 fans and they set records of 60,000 which is almost double, so I can’t wait to experience that too.”

Before properly embarking on the latest chapter in her career, there was something Van Domselaar had to settle.

“The first thing I said was, ‘I have to say: I’m the real DVD,’ and they all laughed,” she says on whether she or Danielle van de Donk, formerly called ‘DVD’ at Arsenal, gets to keep the nickname.

“Even at the national team, I’m DVD and she’s Dan — a shorter version of Danielle. I sort of took her name but my initials are DVD and hers are DVDD, so I can own that name now.”

(Top photo: Getty Images)