How Roar's new Dutch import Bente Jansen is conquering the A-League and Aussie culture
Brisbane Roar’s Dutch import Bente Jansen is the league’s leading goal scorer – she opens up on what it is really like to move across the world to play football and the biggest challenges she has faced.
Dutch born striker Bente Jansen is taking the A-League by storm but the Brisbane Roar import who speaks very passable English never imagined language would be an issue in Australia.
Jansen, 26, has scored three goals from three games in her debut A-League’s season, and is a key reason Roar sit second on the competition ladder.
While with AFC Ajax she won the Dutch Cup and progress through to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
During her 12 years at Dutch club FC Twente she won the Eredivisie league three times, the KNVB Women’s Cup and Women’s Super Cup.
But she had never visited Australia before deciding to sign with Brisbane Roar.
“The weather was challenging at first because I came out of summer in the Netherlands but summer there is a little bit different than summer here,” Jensan said.
“Also you drive on the wrong side of the road for me so that was also a bit challenging in the first week.
“And the language. I’m trying in English but sometimes you Aussies have some slang words that are not in my vocabulary, I’m trying to adapt to that.”
Jansen said she has come across a few Aussie words and sayings that have left her confused and wondering what her teammates were talking about.
Bente Jansen gets 2ï¸âƒ£ in 2ï¸âƒ£ games 🔥
— Brisbane Roar FC (@brisbaneroar) November 7, 2025
She headers it into the back of the net to extend our lead in Perth!#PERvBRIpic.twitter.com/62XM0ow6Ms
One of the first she came across was the word “heaps” – used instead of frequently.
“You also really like to say ‘you reckon’, you guys use that for a lot of things, and I’m finding myself using it now.”
While she is 16,000km from home and everything, especially the grocery stores, are different Jansen said the multiculturalism in Australia had her feeling right at home.
“You have a lot of cultures here, I really like the diversity,” she said.
“I actually met some Dutch people as well, I was on a day off and went to some waterfalls and there were two Dutch people there, so that was also fun.”
The Roar team has a number of different nationalities in it, including three Americans and a Japanese player.
Jansen said the team planned to get together to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together.
“We have a game really close to Christmas so we have training so everybody’s going to be here and we’ve talked about organising some fun stuff with the other girls,” Jansen said.
“It’s nice to not be by yourself.”
With her family not due to fly over for a visit until March Jansen said she would be relying on Facetime to keep in touch with her family over the festive season. She misses them greatly, she only lived two hours from them when she was in the Netherlands, but it was a sacrifice worth making to progress her football career.
Jansen started playing football when she was just four years old.
She has wanted to start earlier but her parents said she couldn’t start playing until she had learned to swim first.
“When I started we had one other girl in our team, I played with the boys for a long time,” she said.
“When I got scouted to a youth team I played in an all girls team but against boys teams.”
It wasn’t until her teenage years that Jansen played in her first girls competition.
Women’s football in the Netherlands has been slowly growing since they claimed the European championship back in 2017.
“Hopefully it can still get bigger because it is not the same as the men’s, but it is one of the biggest if not the biggest sports in the Netherlands and a lot of girls are playing,” she said.
While navigating the aisles of the grocery store is still a work in progress for Jansen she has had little trouble finding her way around the football pitch.
The striker credits the fact Roar have been so welcoming to her success because when you feel comfortable off the field you are comfortable on it.
Brisbane Roar have this weekend off and don’t play again until November 30 – due to the international break.
ROUND AHEAD
Saturday:
2pm: Newcastle Jets vs Western Sydney Wanderers
3pm: Canberra United vs Perth Glory
Sunday
1pm: Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Victory
3pm: Sydney FC vs Central Coast Mariners
More Coverage
Originally published as How Roar's new Dutch import Bente Jansen is conquering the A-League and Aussie culture
City’s ACL campaign on track after Seoul draw
