Martens and Groenen called up by the Netherlands for World Cup
By Hidayah Ali
The 2023 edition of the Women's World Cup is fast approaching, and two Parisiannes, Lieke Martens and Jackie Groenen, have been selected to represent the Netherlands.
Though both were chosen for the provisional squad in May, it has now been confirmed the two players will for definite will be heading over to Australia and New Zealand next month.
Groenen, 28 years old, has already been a major influence on her national team as she scored the winning goal in extra time of the Semi-final of the World Cup back in 2019 and booked Netherlands their first-ever WC final, which they eventually ended up losing to the USA.
She and Martens, 30 years old, will now hope to go one step further and win the most wanted trophy for the first time in the country's history, as neither Women nor Men have won the honor before.
Martens and Groenen join fellow PSG players Ramona Bachmann and Viola Calligaris to have been officially called up for the tournament.
While France has chosen eight French PSG players, that is only for the preliminary squad, and we will soon see who makes the final cut.
On other notes, Amalie Vangsgaard has been named apart of the squad for Denmark.
Another transfer target who seems likely to join Paris in the next few weeks, Ana Vitoria, will be present for Brazil.
Groenen took to her personal Instagram page after the news had emerged and wrote, "This is going to be a special summer. It's such an honour to be a part of this team. I'm so ridiculously proud."
Martens and Groenen will face a tough challenge right at the beginning of the competition due to finding themselves in a group alongside USA, Portugal, and Vietnam. Quite the starstudded group, you'd say.
For now, PSG has a total of five players officially taking part in the WC'23 and will most likely have more attending, especially with names like Kadidiatou Diani, Grace Geyoro, and Sakina Karchaoui on the France preliminary list, along with another five.