In this My Game In My Words series, The Athletic builds towards the Women’s World Cup by talking to leading players around the world to find out how they think about football, why they play the way they do and to reflect — through looking back at their key career moments — on their achievements so far.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Lieke Martens knows what it means to set a tournament on fire.
With a Champions League winner’s medal to her name, Martens has earned a reputation for the spectacular and is certain to be a key player for the Netherlands in next month’s Women’s World Cup in Australia, starting on July 20. The winger’s international record speaks for itself; 58 goals for the Netherlands in 144 appearances.
But it is hard to forget one of Martens’ most spectacular years — 2017. She spent it ripping through defences and destroying rivals’ European Championship dreams.
She won the Player of the Tournament award at the 2017 Euros, a winners’ medal and a flurry of individual prizes the same year, including FIFA Best Women’s Player and the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year. A Cruyff turn in a group game against Belgium saw the two defenders tracking her left so disorientated that they ran into each other and clashed heads.
Martens…
