Vivianne Miedema is a Dutch professional footballer who has played as a forward for the Netherlands women's national football team since 2013. [1] She is the all-time top scorer for her country, for both women and men. [2] On 26 September 2013, Miedema made her debut for the Dutch senior team aged seventeen. She was an 84th-minute substitute for Lieke Martens in a 4–0 win over Albania in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5. [1] One month later in her second cap she scored her first goals, a hat-trick, in her country's 7–0 win over Portugal, after only having come onto the pitch as a substitute in the 75th minute. [3]
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Miedema helped the Dutch qualify for their first-ever FIFA World Cup finals, scoring all three of her side's goals in the two-leg final of the UEFA qualification play-offs against Italy in November 2014. [4] She finished as the top scorer in the qualification campaign with 16 goals. [5] At the finals in Canada, she played all four matches, three group stage games and the round of 16 match, a defeat against Japan. She did not score in Canada. [6] At the 2017 UEFA Women's European Championship, held in the Netherlands, Miedema scored four times, including in the semi-final win over England and in the final against Denmark. [7] [8] Her goals helped secure the first ever title for the Dutch women. [8]
In the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification – UEFA play-offs Miedema scored twice against Switzerland, taking her country to the World Cup finals in France, where she scored three times. [9] [10] On 15 June 2019, Miedema became the all-time top scorer of the Netherlands women's national football team after scoring her 60th goal in a 3–1 Group E win against Cameroon. [11] She passed the record held by Manon Melis and extended her lead over the men's team's leading scorer, Robin van Persie, who scored 50 goals before retiring. [12] In the quarter-final against Italy she scored the first goal of the match, helping the Dutch progress. [13] In the final against the United States the Netherlands did not score and lost 2–0. [14] At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo Miedema broke the record of most goals scored in a single Olympic tournament: 10. [15] In 116 appearances for the senior national team as of October 2023, Miedema has scored 95 goals. [1] None of her goals have come from penalty kicks. [1] She has scored seven hat-tricks: a double hat-trick (six goals) against Cyprus (2022), [16] four goals against Zambia (2021), and regular hat-tricks against Greece (2013), [17] Russia (2017), [18] and Portugal (twice, in 2013 and 2014). [19] [20] Her most productive year was 2017 with 20 goals from 21 games. [1]
