The 25-year-old, who has 48 caps for the Netherlands, has found love in Manchester – settling down with her partner Ruth, who she met on a dating app.<\/p>\n
Now an openly gay woman, Casparij says the community is “close to her heart”.<\/p>\n
“It was hard at times growing up until I got into women’s football. It was normal and openly spoken about [at Heerenveen],” she said.<\/p>\n
“I learned a lot about myself. I didn’t have that when I was young, I had so many doubts and questions.<\/p>\n
“I was lying awake at night thinking ‘is this weird or am I weird?’ Being able to be that role model now with my partner, for so many young girls, is so important.”<\/p>\n
The right-back has a platform to promote inclusivity in women’s football and has taken full advantage.<\/p>\n
She wears rainbow laces on her football boots, rainbow armbands, regularly posts messages of LGBTQ+ support on social media and in April, dedicated her goal against Everton to the transgender community.<\/p>\n
“Why I find it really important to spread the word and stand with people is because in modern society if it’s often not against you, you won’t say anything,” said Casparij.<\/p>\n
“It’s important that we stand up for people that need it so they feel supported. For example, the trans community. They are good people and I care about them.<\/p>\n
“I want to show that I stand with them. I’m hoping to inspire people to do the same. I think we need more togetherness generally and a sense of community.”<\/p>\n
She has supported numerous campaigns – most recently becoming a patron for the LGBTQ Foundation, helping to fund helplines against domestic abuse and transphobia.<\/p>\n
“I think queer women are having a tough time at the moment and I want to help them have safe spaces,” said Casparij.<\/p>\n
“In domestic violence, for example, queer women are often overlooked. I want to make sure they have a place to heal and someone to talk to.<\/p>\n
“I want to be a woman that helps women.”<\/p>\n
She is also passionate about setting an example to young, gay women – the type of representation she wished she had as a child.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to be able to make other people take away doubt. It’s about helping them to understand why they are feeling how they are feeling,” she added.<\/p>\n
“I always love being surrounded by queer people. Feeling included and supported is important. All I want to do is spread love.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 25-year-old, who has 48 caps for the Netherlands, has found love in Manchester – settling down with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-217971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}