Sari Kees (born 17 February 2001) is a Belgian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a defender for

Belgian Women's Super League The Belgian Women's Super League (Dutch: Super League ''Vrouwenvoetbal/Belgisch Vrouwenvoetbal Kampioenschap''; French: ''Superligue/Championnat de Belgique féminin de football''; German: ''Superliga/Belgische Frauenfußballmeisterschaft'') is th ...

club Oud-Heverlee Leuven and the Belgium national team.

Club career

Kees started her youth career as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

at SP Budingen. At age 10, she joined

OH Leuven Oud-Heverlee Leuven (), also called OH Leuven or OHL, is a Belgian football club from the city of Leuven. It was created in 2002 from the merger of three clubs, '' F.C. Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee'', whose registration number it inherited, ''D ...

, and further developed as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

throughout their youth teams for the next eight seasons. On 12 June 2019, it was announced that Kees joined Racing Genk for one season, becoming a team regular there. Kees returned to OH Leuven again in April 2020, scoring the winning goal in their 1–0 win against defending champions

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

. Leuven ended their season in second place, behind Anderlecht. Kees stated that her ambitions for the coming years are becoming a full-time member of the national team, and earning a transfer to a foreign club.

International career

Kees is a member of the national team since the under-15s. As a central defender, she played for the under-19s in the UEFA U19 Championship in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

in their group matches against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Kees made her debut for the Belgium national team on 16 February 2022, in a 4–0 win against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

in the

Pinatar Cup The Pinatar Cup, by full name Pinatar Cup by IAST SPORTS, is an invitational women's association football tournament held in March in San Pedro del Pinatar, Region of Murcia, Spain. In the first edition (in 2020), it was contested by Iceland, No ...

in Spain.

Career statistics

International

International goals

References

External links

* * 2001 births Living people Belgian women's footballers Women's association football defenders Oud-Heverlee Leuven (women) players KRC Genk Ladies players Super League Vrouwenvoetbal players Belgium women's youth international footballers Belgium women's international footballers UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players {{Belgium-footy-defender-stub