WILLEMSZ Debby

General
RETURN FROM RETIREMENT
In April 2019 she retired from national team duty due to a lack of motivation competing behind first-choice goalkeeper Laura Aarts. She reversed her decision in August that year after she was asked to return by coach Arno Havenga, when Aarts also quit the Dutch squad. "The break really did me good. I was afraid of falling into a black hole but that didn't happen at all. I will not let this chance at the Olympic Games go. During my conversation with Arno I thought, 'I'm just going for the Olympics'. Arno didn't call me for nothing. That feels good and gives me confidence." (ad.nl, 09 Dec 2019; waterpolo.nl, 06 Apr 2019)

PLAYING ABROAD
She spent two seasons with Spanish club CN Mataro from 2016 and had planned to return in 2019 before rejoining the national team and choosing to stay at GZC Donk. "Everything was ready, but if I rejoined the national team I could not go to Spain. That was tough. I immediately informed Mataro that Arno [Havenga] had called me and that I had three weeks to make a decision. They were very understanding when I announced I would stay with Donk. It hurt to say I wouldn't be coming, the club feels like my second home. Mataro's sporting director sent me an email that almost made me cry, it was so sweet." (ad.nl, 09 Dec 2019)

She was named Dutch Premier League Talent of the Year at the 2012 Water Polo Gala in a vote of the league's coaches. (zpb.nl, 06 Jan 2013; knzb.nl, 03 Dec 2012)