Benjamin van Leer is nowadays more regarded as ‘the man of’ former top football player Lieke Martens, than he is remembered as a football player himself. The former goalkeeper said this in an interview Football International. Van Leer tells a nice anecdote about a meeting with several Ajax fans.
“We were walking at Schiphol and we had not yet made our relationship public,” Van Leer begins his anecdote to VI. He himself played for Roda JC, NAC Breda and Sparta Rotterdam. The 33-year-old goalkeeper, who has now hung up his gloves, was also under contract with Ajax from 2017 to 2020. “Then two guys walked up with AFCA (Ajax, ed.) on their jersey. I was Ajax’s second goalkeeper, right, I was just in the match selection.”
THE
14:30
08-02-2026
AJX
“They wanted a photo,” says Van Leer. “‘Hey Lieke, can I take a picture with you?’ We laugh a bit: this is how it will go from now on. Then they asked me to take the photo. They did that in English. They didn’t even recognize me.”
Van Leer now lives and works in Spain. When he met Martens, he was shocked by all the prizes that the former Orange Lioness had at home. “What did I have at home? Best player of Roda JC in 2016. I am very happy with that, but… shit. What am I going to show? By the way, her parents put her cups on display, she just left them in the moving boxes. I have now taken them out of the boxes again in Estepona. Man, if I were the best in the world, I would have put that cup on the dining table all day long, so that everyone would see it. But that’s just the way it is. I am proud of her.”
