By Catherine MacKenzie (27/08/2025)
Above: Dominique Janssen for the Netherlands national team. Photo: @oranjevrouwen on X.
After a summer packed with international tournaments, club football takes center stage again. This year, Manchester United aim to build on just their second-ever top-three WSL finish. Ahead of the 2025–26 season kicking off on September 6th, Impetus Football’s Catherine MacKenzie sat down with United and Netherlands defender (and occasional midfielder) Dominique Janssen.
So I thought I would just start by just asking how you are. You’ve been in Manchester at United now, for a year. So how that’s been?
DJ: Now first of all I am doing good, it has been a good pre-season so far. Gradually trying to just get, you know, started on the real work, with the Champions League qualifications coming up next week, so that’s that’s very exciting. I’ve been here now for one year, I think time just generally flies. Even though there are always times where you feel that you have a bit of a tough time, it’s normal, you know, moving away to a new country.
But obviously I’ve done it before, but I mean moving here just building your life again. It’s you know, once you get older your values are more and more to have the right people around you. But yeah I settled in well and I’m just really looking forward now to the next season. I just think it’s crazy. How quick the time goes and that now already one another great season is done and we go into the next games into the next season again.
I was reading up and you were at Wolfsburg for five years. What’s the transition been like, and have you noticed a load of changes within the standard of the WSL?
DJ: Yeah, generally, I just feel like the attention. You know, for the games and the media attention has grown massively like obviously England is a country made for football. So it’s just really fun to see that they keep those standards high obviously. It’s nice that everyone gets a lot of exposure. Um, and of course, when the national team is being successful this year again, that’s a massive push for the league as well. So it’s nice to see that.
It’s just been pushing forward and we want to generally push forward in the women’s game and I think it’s important that it comes with success. England’s having some successes and you can see how many people want to go to England and play in the English league. Now again, how many big players are coming to the WSL? It shows that everyone wants to play here. Everyone wants to compete here. Everyone wants to get some prizes here.
I was actually going to ask about that because there’s a lot of Dutch players in the league. What do you think makes Dutch players fit in so well, because you came across and you seemed to seamlessly kind of fit in and I know you had prior experience in England, but we’re seeing the same with other Dutch players. They come in and it just seems like they’ve always been here. Do you think there’s something special within like the two countries, how we both perceive football or styles of play?
DJ: I just think generally we as Dutch people, we are very good at adjusting because we are a small country. Obviously, we are close to Germany, Belgium. Most of the people can speak a little bit of German, because we’re so close to the German borders. Then we all can speak very well English. So when people go to a country, you know, I think that we are just very flexible and we’re really good at adjusting and just want to really get to know the culture the country that we are in. So I think that’s also what makes it easy.
And and also we as Dutch people, I think the development that we have – we want to play football. So I think the English style of football is maybe different than the Dutch style but because we learn to play football very technically from when we are young, that obviously helps. When you go to a league where the speed is going to be higher than in the Dutch League, for example. I think that’s also one of the reasons why so many people just come here and they adjust so easily. So I think it’s really, you know, nice to see that and nice to hear as well that you’re saying. It seems like you guys just come in and it seems like you’ve never been anywhere else. Yeah, so I just take that as a compliment.
And I was just going to ask about the Bundesliga as well. Uh, kind of how that compares to the WSL. Not which one is better, but kind of any similarities or major differences between between the two leagues.
DJ: I also think it depends on what team you play for. Because I remember when I was playing at Wolfsburg, we are most of the times the favourites, because Wolfsburg won so many prizes in Germany.. You have everything to lose and you just want to win every single game because that’s the standard there is. Um, we just had a lot of the ball there attacking a lot. You’re the favourite in every game. And here in England it’s….if you’re playing for a big club, even if you play for Chelsea, or even Arsenal, and for us Man United…everyone wants to beat you and you have so many good teams that even the, I guess the top four with Man City or Chelsea, we we all want to beat each other as well.
We all want to become Champions so there’s so much competition going on and if you compare it to Germany, I think now as well they are improving. Like there are more teams that also stepping up at this point and making it the big teams difficult. In England, it is like if you have one bad day, you can even, you know, lose against or drop points against maybe someone that’s about to relegate. And I think that’s just a massive difference if you just compare it to the German league and the and the WSL.
It’s like I still think that they are also at a really good level because the WSL, I noticed that I feel like it’s way more physical. There is way more speed involved and that’s like a very important aspect. Germany obviously is also yeah it’s important that you know your physical and stuff but I don’t know, I feel like the attention is way more on that here in England than it was in Germany.
I was gonna ask if it’s different because when you were with Wolfsburg, like you said, you’re the favourites. So you kind of have Wolfsburg and Bayern always competing for first. Now you’ve got challengers, you’ve got Frankfurt coming in sometimes challenging. United are very much one of the challengers, like, you’re always pushing Chelsea. Is that a different mindset, like is that a different way of thinking about things?
DJ: Uh yeah I think that’s definitely different. You know, like you said in Germany, if you have one team that you really have to beat, you know, you have to do your job every single week, but then it’s important that when you play for example, Bayern Munich, you have to make sure you win that game because that could be a decider. And England is just completely different because you have so many top teams and I was… well, even London City Lionesses is coming up, but seeing what type of players they are signing….Yeah, I think it was very interesting to see how this is gonna go because they can also be a surprising team and just make teams, you know, have a hard time.
So I think that’s the very exciting part and that’s also what draws so many players to England. Because even if you play for, let’s say Aston Villa, where I know some Dutch players, or the London City Lionesses or whatever, those teams can still surprise and get some points off you. Yeah but I think that’s just very exciting.
Uh I have to let you go in a minute, but I just wanted to ask about preseason, how important is it. And I know that you are a big advocate of well-being and looking after your well-being. So how important is it ahead of a new season? Kind of how to get your yourself ready?
DJ: Yeah, I think now it’s extra challenging because obviously we had the Euros and players are having less time off, you know, to really switch off than if you just don’t have a big tournament in the summer. But I think the club has been pretty good. They have been giving us all some some time off which after a big tournament after being away for so many weeks with the with the national team. I think it’s important that you you have some time to just switch off and just do whatever feels good for you in the moment.
If you’re, you know, if you go to the Euros, it’s every day. You just have to go go and there’s not really time to think or not really time to rest. Um, personally, to be honest, I decided this time also after the Euros to just stay at home, just be at my mom’s place. And just every day, I just felt like, okay, today this feels good to to do for me. So I’m gonna do this, but maybe another day I plan to do something another day I plan to do nothing.
So for me, it was just very important to just do whatever felt right in the moment, because there are so many emotions, so many things happening in your head and you just need to really be able to switch off where after, having two weeks off. This point where you feel like, okay now is the right time to go again. Um, so that was that was a nice feeling because sometimes you feel like, okay, I’m never gonna be ready to start a whole new season all over again. But you need the time to be able to switch off to then get that new energy and actually get that new excitement to start another season because if I think about it I’m 30. Now I’ve had 12 seasons behind me in professional level and that’s actually insane if you think about it.
You left the Netherlands, when you were, I looked it up. I think you were 17. So you were very young when you started playing for Essen.
DJ: I was 18 yeah.
Wow. One, two more questions actually quickly. What do you do to switch off?
DJ: Um, if we’re talking about the importance of switching off, Um, well, this time I decided to spend loads of time with uh, with my family. I spend lots of time with my mum. I spent lots of time with my, my brother and my sister and their kids. Their kids are amazing. And so it’s nice to just play with them and just be a little bit yourself basically. So um just trying to fulfil my auntie duties because obviously I’m not uh there so often. I was really enjoying it, so that gives me a lot of energy and a lot of you know, time to switch over, not think about football. Um, so that was for me this summer really, really nice. To have so much time with them and just really enjoy it.
And then, lastly, I’m going to be sneaky and quickly ask about your book because I know that you wrote a book with your sister. Um, can I ask whether there’s any plans to translate into English at all?
DJ: Um, well, it started off as a really good idea, I think. And then we did it, but I feel like we haven’t pushed it as much as we wanted to. So we’re just trying to figure everything out. What we want to do before actually seeing if we want to expand it. Yeah, yeah, so that’s something that’s for now. It’s sort of on a hold. You know, you never know what’s going to happen in the future, so maybe one day we will, of course.
Well, thank you so much for talking to me. Sorry, I couldn’t be there in person. I really wanted to be.
DJ: That’s fine. Thank you as well.
Manchester United kick off their WSL campaign at home to Leicester City on Saturday 5th September.
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