Daphne van Domselaar

Daphne van Domselaar (; born 6 March 2000) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Women's Super League club Arsenal and the Netherlands national team. Prior to her Arsenal move, she played for Twente and Aston Villa.

Club career

Youth career At the age of 11, Van Domselaar started playing football at LSVV in Zuid-Scharwoude. In the team that she joined, the girls played without a regular keeper. However, after Van Domselaar took her turn as goalkeeper, she did not leave that position but stayed in it. The LSVV goalkeeping coach immediately recognised her great talent. Moreover, he noted that she had learned a lot at the volleyball club from which she had come. Van Domselaar then played for four years with the boys of LSVV and for two years with Telstar's youth academy.

In her second year at Telstar, she was the one-off reserve keeper of the senior team in their away match against PSV on 4 February 2017. Telstar continued as VV Alkmaar in the following season. Soccerway erroneously reports that Van Domselaar played with VV Alkmaar in the 2016–17 season. From the 2019–20 season, Van Domselaar was FC Twente's first-choice goalkeeper. After the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 championship, various foreign clubs were interested in Van Domselaar, but she decided to stay with FC Twente for the 2022–23 season. She did say that she hoped for a transfer to “a very nice club outside the Netherlands” in 2023. At the end of 2022, she was the only Eredivisie player included in The Guardian's annual list of the 100 best female football players in the world.

On 16 June 2023, Women's Super League club Aston Villa announced the signing of Van Domselaar on a three-year deal until 2026. In March 2024, Van Domselaar underwent surgery on her hip, and would miss the remainder of the WSL season.

On 31 July 2024, it was announced that Arsenal had signed Van Domselaar after triggering a substantial buyout clause in her Villa contract. On 9 March 2025, Arsenal were knocked out of the FA Cup quarterfinals against Liverpool, after an unfortunate own goal from Van Domselaar. After suffering a concussion from the FA cup match against Liverpool Van Domselaar missed Arsenal’s next two matches. She returned to the squad against Liverpool in their league match, keeping a clean sheet in a 4-0 Arsenal win. She won the 2026 WSL Save of the Season award for a save she made during a win over Brighton.

Alongside her football career, she has studied for a Certificate in Football Psychology at the Professional Footballers' Association business school.

International career Van Domselaar's first cap was for a friendly against Belgium U15 on 18 March 2015. The UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship in May 2017 was her first major tournament. With the Dutch team she reached the semifinals. Her performance in the Netherlands U17 team drew the attention of Tommy Stroot, who brought her to FC Twente in the summer of 2017. In July 2022, she was named in the Dutch squad for the European Championship held in England. In the first group match against Sweden, the starting goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal was injured, and Van Domselaar came on as a substitute in the 20th minute. She played in goal for the rest of the tournament. Up to and including the quarterfinals, in which the Netherlands team were eliminated by France, she was the star player of the Dutch national team.

Career statistics Club

KNVB Women's Cup: 2022–23 Eredivisie Cup: 2019–20, 2021–22, 2022–23 Dutch Women's Super Cup: 2022

Arsenal UEFA Women's Champions League: 2024–25 FIFA Women's Champions Cup: 2026

Individual UEFA Women's Champions League Team of the Season: 2024–25