Wieke Kaptein


Wieke Hendrikje Maria Kaptein is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Super League club Chelsea and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Kaptein started playing football at Achilles '12. Already at the age of 15, she received a professional contract with FC Twente Enschede.  Capping off her first season with the league title, she also featured in the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League qualifying, scoring the goal in the opening game against FC Nike Tbilisi to make it 9–0.  Twente, however, lost out to [S.L. S.L. Benfica (women)|Benfica (women)|Benfica] in the Champions Path final. A year later, Benfica was the last stop on the way to the group stage.
In March 2023, Kaptein was voted one of the nine best talents in the world.
Kaptein made her debut for Chelsea on 27 September, 2024. She scored her first goal for the club in the 5–0 win against Everton on 3 November.

International career

Kaptein played some games for the Dutch junior teams from the U-15. With the U-17 team, she took part in the first and second qualifying rounds of the 2022 U-17 European Championship, which was successfully completed in April 2022, where she was captain in the second round. However, she was not part of the squad for the finals in May 2022, because she was wanted for the end of the league season. With the U-19 team, she qualified in October 2022 for the second qualifying round for the 2023 U-19 European Championship. She was not used in the second round in April 2023, as she was nominated for the senior national team games that took place at the same time.
On 11 April 2023, she had her first senior cap. She came on as a substitute in the 81st minute for Lieke Martens in a friendly they won 4–1 against Poland.
On 30 June 2023, she was nominated for the World Cup finals. She was the youngest World Cup debutant ever for the Dutch national team.

Career statistics

International

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
129 November 2024Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel, Rotterdam, Netherlands1–14–1Friendly
28 April 2025Stadion Schnabelholz, Altach, Austria1–13–12025 UEFA Women's Nations League

Honours

Twente
Chelsea
Individual