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Ellen Fokkema’s historic game for a Dutch men’s team

 

VV Foarut midfielder Ellen Fokkema has a typical matchday routine: ride her bicycle through the beautiful Friesland fields to the Schatzenburg sports complex in the small village of Menaam, in the north of the Netherlands (about 90 minutes north of Amsterdam), where she sees the same faces at the club that’s been her home since the age of 5.

But last  Saturday would prove to be anything but normal, as the 20-year-old learned she was going to be on the bench in the club’s “4e Klasse” (ninth tier) opener against Sleat. Not for her usual U19 side, but for the senior men’s team.

In the 60th minute, she made Dutch football history as the first pro woman to play for a senior men’s team in league play.

In May 2021, the KNVB (Dutch Football Association) announced a change in its eligibility rules — thanks to Fokkema’s perseverance, passion and talent  that would allow women to play in senior men’s matches.

While mixed football is allowed at the youth level and in “category B” amateur teams, she’d previously not been allowed to play at a higher level for a men’s team.

But that all changed when Fokkema was given the nod by her coach Janco Croes and walked on to the pitch in front of around 150 spectators to make football history.

Ellen Fokkema on the bench with her male teammates

Fokkema is used to playing alongside and against men; she has the scars on her leg to prove it. She looks at areas where she could use her nous and speed to get an advantage, just like her hero, Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong. “I play smart, otherwise I’ll never win, that’s biologically determined,” she told ESPN.

The week running up to the match was typical, with two training sessions fitted around her studies. But although she tried to keep everything as normal as possible, Fokkema knew the significance of playing in Saturday’s match.

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Last Tuesday, she was working in the emergency department at the local hospital, with six months left in her studies before she qualifies as a nurse, but she’s since helped make a seismic shift in football.

“I guess it’s a milestone for soccer in general,” Fokkema said. “Women will be able to choose in which team to play… that’s new, that they have the choice. I hope I won’t be the last, or else it would have all been for nothing.”

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