A staple on the Dutch women’s national team for the most part of the last decade, middle blocker Yvon Beliën announced her retirement at the conclusion of the 2022-2023 club season with Italy’s Savino Del Bene Scandicci.
The 29-year-old player decided to end her volleyball career after 12 years playing professionally and eight seasons with the Dutch national team, from which she retired at the start of 2022.
Beliën has been involved with each of the biggest moments of the Dutch national team over the last decade, most notably their fourth-place finish at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Over the course of 261 matches on the orange uniform, the middle blocker has also helped the team finish fourth at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship and secure silver medals in back-to-back editions of the European Championship in 2015 and 2017.
“I am so proud that I was able to turn my hobby into my work,” she wrote in the Instagram post that announced her decision. “I got to play abroad for ten years with strong teams, to compete in many big tournaments, to know different cultures and to be able to develop into the person I am now, but above anything, I’m grateful for the wonderful people I got to meet. But on the other hand, the time away from home made me miss living in the Netherlands too.”
