van ES Kika

General
PLAYING BOYS' FOOTBALL
Growing up she played for a boys' team and competed under the name 'Randy', so her opponents would not know she was a girl. "When I was younger, football was just for boys and there were not many girls teams. Me and my parents decided to cut my hair so I would look like a boy. I just wanted to become a professional football player and knew that wouldn't be possible as a girl. Back then, I was scouted by Dutch top teams like PSV and NEC but when they found out I was a girl, they didn't want me anymore." (VTBL YouTube channel, 23 Mar 2019; Bureau Sport YouTube channel, 16 Jun 2019)

RETURN TO FC TWENTE
In September 2020 she left English side Everton to rejoin Dutch club FC Twente, who she had previously played for between 2017 and 2018. She said the move was partly motivated by her experience during the first lockdown period in England in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I spent four months at home in the Netherlands during the first lockdown and went back to Liverpool after that. There, I started to feel lonely. You have to divide my time in England into two periods, the time before and after COVID-19. Before it, everything was fine. I lived in a small village just outside Liverpool and suddenly there was nothing left. England had a much stricter lockdown than the Netherlands. After the training you went straight to home. You didn't come out the door anymore. That made the days long. When my coach told me I would start the season as a reserve player, I asked my management to search for a new club. My agent managed to put a clause in my contract, which stated that I could return to the Netherlands at any time. It came as a big surprise to the outside world that I went to FC Twente, but my family had seen this coming for a while." (gelderlander.nl, 01 Oct 2020; kliknieuws.nl, 14 Oct 2020)