Vivianne Miedema


Anna Margaretha Marina Astrid Miedema , commonly known as Vivianne Miedema, is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for FA WSL club Arsenal and the Netherlands women's national football team. While at Bayern Munich she won the Bundesliga twice. With Arsenal she won the league title in 2019. With the Dutch national team she became European champion in 2017. She has scored more goals at international level for the Netherlands than any other player, across both the women’s and men’s teams.

Club career

Miedema signed for SC Heerenveen at 14 and made her senior debut at 15, reportedly becoming the youngest ever player in the Eredivisie Vrouwen. Her 39 goals for Heerenveen in the 2013–14 BeNe League won her the top-scorer award.
Miedema signed a contract with Bayern Munich in June 2014. In 2014–15, she was part of a young Bayern team that remained unbeaten in the Bundesliga and won the title for the first time since 1976. She helped Bayern Munich defend the title the following season.
In May 2017, Miedema went on to English club Arsenal. On 29 October, Vivianne scored her first goal in England for Arsenal in the match with Everton on 23rd minute.
Miedema scored a hat-trick as Arsenal defeated Liverpool, 5–0, in the first match of the 2018–19 season. She brought her goals tally into double-digits with a brace against Bristol City in a 4–0 Arsenal victory. Miedema finished the season as the WSL top scorer with 22 goals and was named PFA Player of the Year.
On 16 October 2019, Miedema scored four goals in Arsenal's 5–2 victory against Slavia Praha in the Women's Champion's League.
On 21 October 2019, Miedema was shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or Féminin.
Miedema was influential in the largest victory in the history of the WSL on 1 December 2019 — of the 11 goals scored by Arsenal against Bristol City, she scored six goals and set up four others. The 11th was the only one she was not directly involved in; she wasn't on the pitch when it was scored.

International career

On 26 September 2013, coach Roger Reijners gave Miedema her debut for the senior Netherlands women's national football team, in a 4–0 win against Albania. At the 2014 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, she was vital for the Dutch success, her six goals in the tournament guided the Netherlands to the title. She was the tournament top scorer by a margin of 4 goals and also collected the Golden Player awarded to the best player of the tournament.
In October 2014, Miedema played a key role in the Netherlands' World Cup qualification play-off victory over Scotland. In the first leg at Tynecastle Stadium she stung the palms of Gemma Fay with a rasping drive which was prodded home by Lieke Martens. Then she casually shrugged off burly centre-half Jennifer Beattie only to be crudely upended by Frankie Brown inside the box. Manon Melis dispatched the resultant penalty to leave the Dutch firmly in the driving seat ahead of the second leg in Rotterdam.
In the final qualification play-off versus Italy, Miedema scored all of the Dutch goals as the Netherlands won 3–2 on aggregate and advanced to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. She finished as the overall top-scorer in the qualification campaign with 16 goals. Coach Reijners praised Miedema's "killer instinct". Despite being still in her teens, she was widely proclaimed "the most gifted striker in Europe" ahead of the Netherlands' first ever FIFA Women's World Cup appearance.
At the 2017 UEFA Women's European Championship she went on to prove her worth when it mattered the most, scoring a winning goal in the semi-final against England. Miedema also netted two goals in the final against Denmark of which was enough to secure the first ever Euro title for the Dutch. After the tournament the whole team was honoured by the Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister of Sport Edith Schippers and made Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Miedema was selected in the final squad for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
On 15 June 2019, she became the all-time top scorer of the Netherlands women's national football team after scoring her 60th goal in a 3–1 win against Cameroon at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. She passed the record held by Manon Melis and moved even further ahead of the men's team leading scorer, Robin van Persie. She scored both goals in the Netherlands' 2–0 quarter-final victory over Italy. She helped to lead the Dutch team to the final, where they fell 2–0 to defending champions United States.

Style of play

Miedema grew up as a Feyenoord supporter and modelled her game on Robin van Persie. As she is Dutch and wore number 10 for Bayern Munich, she has been compared to Arjen Robben. Journalist David Winner, author of a book about Dutch football, sees her style of play as a mix of Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp.

Personal life

Miedema lives 30 minutes north of London with her girlfriend, Scottish player and Arsenal teammate Lisa Evans.
Her younger brother Lars is also a footballer, who as of 2020 was establishing himself in the first team at FC Den Bosch. Known for her disinterest in overtly celebrating her many goals, she made an exception for the strike which made her the Dutch national top scorer in 2019 only as an agreement with her brother who insisted she should mark the achievement.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours

Club

Bayern Munich
Arsenal