The girl playing football in the small Dutch town of Bergen in the late 90s did not know there was a women’s game. Instead her idol was Ronaldinho. Why? “Because I was a Barça fan,” says Lieke Martens. “He had long hair like me and great dribbles. I loved him. He was technical, made a lot of goals.”

Watch the Netherlands and Barcelona midfielder now and one can tell why she is a fan of the Brazil great. Her Cruyff turn, back to goal, to take out two Belgium players, leaving one on the floor, as she drove forward at Euro 2017, is a taste of the 25-year-old’s ability to trick and turn her way out of the tightest gaps.

The European Championship, hosted in her home country, catapulted Martens into the spotlight but in women’s football her talent was well known. With 20 goals in 29 games for Rosengard she could have had her pick of Europe’s top sides but when the Catalan club swooped, the decision was easy. “I played against Barcelona in the quarter-final of the Champions League with my previous club – the way they played I really liked it,” she says.

With Barcelona’s investment in their women’s team a new development, the signing of Martens, the English forward Toni Duggan, María Pilar León from Atlético Madrid and Élise Bussaglia from the German champions, Wolfsburg, was a statement of intent. “I signed before the Euros,” Martens says. “For me it was really important to sign before, so I was clear in my head and free for the Euros.”

Martens shone from the first whistle and when her flighted pass from the corner of the box found the head of Shanice van de Sanden to hand the Netherlands an opening victory over Norway, it was just the start.

She was chosen in the team of the tournament, named player of it, and in the final she squeezed a shot between two Denmark players to give the Oranje Leeuwinnen (Orange Lionesses) a 2-1 lead after they had trailed to a Nadia Nadim penalty. “Playing a final is amazing,” she says. “There’s even more pressure but I really trusted the team. When we went behind to the penalty I think we scored really quick, and then we got the lead, 2-1, then before half-time it was 2-2. I remember at half-time we said to each other, ‘Come on girls, we really believe we’re going to do this’, and then we won 4-2. The trust in the team was so big during the tournament.”

At no point did she believe they would fall short: “Even when we conceded in the final, it was the first time we had gone behind, but I had no worries, nothing, that we would lose that game.”

The Netherlands were outsiders, ranked 12th in the world. Germany, France and England were the favourites. So at what point did the host country realise they could win it? “We felt good after the group stage – we had nine points, we won all the games. I really felt then that something was possible. When we beat England 3-0 in the semi-final I thought: ‘Right, now we have to win this final.’”

The opening match in Utrecht was attended by 21,732 people and as momentum built, a sea of orange would flood the streets before games. “That was amazing, the whole tournament was amazing,” she adds. “The first game was sold out and during the tournament we got more and more people really happy and wanting to see us play. In Utrecht the big celebration day was amazing. We really felt the support [for] the whole tournament.”

A remarkable 4.1 million watched the final on Dutch TV and more than 110,000 watched their six sold-out matches at the stadiums. “Players get recognised in the street now,” Martens says. “Some players are famous. We’re role models for a lot of girls now and some boys. A lot of boys are fans of us over the men’s team.”

It has not stopped – 30,238 watched the 7-0 win over Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier in Eindhoven this month. Martens, who has played for clubs in five countries, won the Best Fifa women’s player award and was Uefa women’s player of the year for 2017, and for the latter she flew to Monaco in a private plane with Lionel Messi before receiving the trophy alongside the men’s winner, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Lieke Martens has Belgium defenders trailing in her wake at Euro 2017. Photograph: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Martens is currently focused on getting to France 2019 (the Netherlands are top of their qualifying group) and on catching Atlético, who are one point ahead of Barça with five games to play. “We’re going to do everything to win – that’s all we can do. We are independent of them. I hope they are going to drop some points. It would be great to win the title in my first season in La Liga.”

The girl who dreamed of being Ronaldinho is the poster girl for young female players, and it is a role she does not take lightly. Martens will use any platform to show women can play, and is taking part in Uefa’s #PlayAnywhere competition (part of the @WePlayStrong campaign), which ends on 30 April, where girls post videos of themselves playing in unusual places. “When I was young,” she adds, “I had no idea there were women players or what I could achieve and now we are role models. Of course I wanted to be involved.”

Talking points

• Jacqui Forster, founder of Women at the Game and former Supporters’ Direct worker, has died aged 55, nine years after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She founded Women at the Game, a group that encouraged and organised women going to live matches, during the latter part of her battle with illness, using money crowdfunded by friends and former colleagues. She also spent years working with fans’ trusts up and down the country with Supporters’ Direct. A lifelong Altrincham fan, Jacqui’s enthusiasm was infectious and an inspiration, as discovered when interviewing her in October, two years after finding out her prognosis was “very short”.

Five games into the NWSL last years table topper’s, North Carolina Courage, are already stretching their legs. The unbeaten side are five points clear of Chicago Red Stars, though they needed a Crystal Dunn goal to rescue a point in their 2-2 draw with the new franchise Utah Royals (who are yet to win a game) on Saturday.

• Brazil were crowned Copa America champions as Monica scored twice and benefited from an own goal in a 3-0 win over Colombia on Sunday. Brazil and Chile qualify for the 2019 World Cup while Argentina face a play-off against a Concacaf team for a spot in France.

• Chelsea’s striker Fran Kirby won the women’s players’ player of the year at the PFA awards on Sunday night. Bristol City’s Lauren Hemp was awarded young player of the year while Casey Stoney was given a special achievement award.