Jonker reluctant to fire top scorer Kalma just before World Cup

Fenna Kalma saw his World Cup dream come crashing down. The striker became the Eredivisie’s top scorer with 31 goals and was voted the 2022 world’s top scorer earlier this year. That proved insufficient to convince national coach Andries Jonker to take her to the Championship world in Australia and New Zealand this summer. When Jonker is asked why, he doesn’t mean the exact reason.

“I prefer the others and I explained to him why,” Jonker said in a conversation with the Algemeen Dagblad. “I’m charmed by Fenna and it’s really a tough decision, but you have to put together a team that you think you can do well with.” There is no place for the goalkeeper in this team. “The difference is very small, so you have to make those kinds of tough decisions.”

“We are currently in possession of no less than six good attackers of whom we can say: they can play at Orange, continues Jonker. Vivianne Miedema, Lineth Beerensteyn, Katja Snoeijs, Shanice van de Sanden, Romée Leuchter and Fenna Kalma. But yes, I can’t take six strikers with me, I want to double all positions, so you have to make tough choices and disappoint talented girls.

On Sunday at 8:45 p.m., the Orange Lionesses will play the farewell match against Belgium in Kerkrade. Then the selection leaves for Sidney for a training course. The team then flies to New Zealand for the group matches. There it touches Portugal, the United States and Vietnam.