Arsenal Women have confirmed the signing of Dutch goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar from Aston Villa.
The Netherlands goalkeeper has been first choice for her country since Euro 2022 and she joined Aston Villa from FC Twente last summer. She had a release clause which Arsenal activated to make this deal happen. Former Gunners keeper Sabrina D’Angelo will join Villa but since she is a free agent the two deals are not specifically tied.
Van Domselaar will wear the number 14 shirt. ‘I’m really happy to be here,” said Daphne. ‘If you look at Arsenal – the players, the team, the stadium – it’s a huge club and I’m so excited to be part of this club. I want to win trophies and achieve big things, and Arsenal is the right place for me to do both. I can’t wait to play at Emirates Stadium in front of all the supporters and show what I can do.’
Head Coach Jonas Eidevall added: ‘We’re delighted to bring Daphne to the club. She is a top goalkeeper and already has considerable experience on some of the biggest stages, while we believe she has a great deal of potential for future development, too. Daphne will further strengthen our goalkeeper unit alongside Manu and Naomi, and will be a strong addition to the team as we prepare for an important new season.’
Director of Women’s Football, Clare Wheatley, said: ‘Daphne is one of the best young goalkeepers in the world and we are very pleased to confirm her arrival here at Arsenal. She has a hunger to develop and succeed that closely aligns with our ethos at the club and we’re confident she will be a great addition to our squad.’
Very happy we have made this signing I think she will add a positive number to our goalkeeper group welcome to North London.
Woop-woop!
I am so happy about this. Welcome to Arsenal, Daphne van Domselaar!
A really exciting signing which means we have two top class keepers duking it out for starts. I hope Naomi Williams goes on loan, poor girl has been hanging round the training ground for ever.
Apparently Reddit fans have given van Domselaar the nickname Blu-Ray already – she is the new DVD.
Blu Ray is superb 👏🏻
Blu-Ray, yes, more elegant than DvD2! We have a potential world class keeper there if all goes to our cunning plan! Let’s hope that Jonas gives her a fair crack of the whip as we know he favours Manu above all challengers so far.
Blu-Ray…. I love it !!!
Great signing. I love this keeper.