Dutch Goalkeeping Icon Tess Wester Retires After Glorious Career
Dutch goalkeeper Tess Wester announced ending of proffesional career:
Tailor Swift would say; the end of an era and Nelly Furtado would say; All good things come to an end.
After 26 years of pouring my heart and soul into this amazing game called handball it’s time for me to say goodbye. This sport has given me more than I could ever give in return and holy moly, what a journey it has been. If you would have told the 5 year old Tess that she’d win championships and cups with teams all around Europe, win medals at the European and World championships, get to represent her country at the Olympics two times and have the time of her life while doing it all, I bet you; she wouldn’t believe it.
Even though it wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always fun. It was bloody hard work and determination. But man, was it worth it.
Worth it because I made friends from all over the world. Friends that turned into family, and with them I had the honor to create forever lasting memories. And those memories are worth more than any medal in the world. (Okay maybe not that gold one from the world championship in 2019, but that’s also a great memory if I may say so). Everyone sees the medals, they see the pictures with the trophy and the big smiles. But what they don’t see are the hours alone at home waiting for the next practice, the sometimes endless hours of work we put in on training to strive for perfection and the disappointment we can feel when things don’t go the way we hoped and work for so hard.
But you know what? Diamonds are made under pressure and I’ve gotten to know some amazing diamonds. (The text continues in the comments, if you’re not bored yet ❤️)
