Sarah Wijnants

Sarah Wijnants

Wijnants in 2022
Personal information
Full name	Sarah Wijnants
Date of birth	(1999-10-13) October 13, 1999 (age 25)
Place of birth	Leuven, Belgium
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	Anderlecht
Number	11
Youth career
–2014	NS Tervuren
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2014–2017	Standard Liège
2017–	Anderlecht	89	(42)
International career‡
2014	Belgium U15	1	(0)
2014–2015	Belgium U16	5	(0)
2014–2016	Belgium U17	14	(3)
2016–2017	Belgium U19	12	(1)
2017–	Belgium	40	(3)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16 July 2023 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 19 November 2024 [1]

Sarah Wijnants (born 13 October 1999) is a Belgian footballer who plays as a forward for Anderlecht and the Belgium women's national football team (also known as the Belgian Red Flames). She has won nine league titles in a row in Belgium, the first two with Standard Liege, the rest with Anderlecht.

Club career

Wijnants started her career in the youth structure at NS Tervuren. In 2014, she moved to Belgian Women's Super League side Standard Liège, making her UEFA Champions League debut on 10 October 2015 against Frankfurt. Standard lost 6–0.

Wijnants won back-to-back league titles with Standard in 2015–16 and 2016-17, departing at the end of the latter season to go to Anderlecht. ^[2]

Wijnants immediately won seven league titles in a row with Anderlecht, sweeping the Belgian Women's Super League from the 2017-18 season right through to 2023-24. ^{[3] [4] [5]} These successes mean that Wijnants has won nine league titles in a row in Belgium.

International career

Wijnants played her first game with the Flames U15 on 26 March 2014 against the Netherlands. The game was lost 0–6. ^[6] The same year, she played for the Flames U16 and U17. She made her first cap for the U16 on a tournament in Magglingen, Switzerland against Croatia. The game was won 0–4. ^[7] Her last game for the U16 was on 7 May 2015 against Norway in Castro Verde, Portugal. ^[8]

On 6 October 2014 she made her first cap with the U17 in a 3–0 victory against Latvia on which she scored the opening goal. This was the first goal as an international. ^[9] She played in total 14 games and was able to score 3 goals. She played her last game for the U17 on 29 March 2015 against England, the game was lost 2–0. In 2016 she made her first cap for the U19 in a match against Ireland and won with 2–1. The friendly game was played in Tubize, Belgium on 19 September.

Wijnants made her first senior appearance in a friendly match against France in Clairefontaine on 19 January. She played 10 minutes and the game ended with a 1–2 victory. ^[10] The Red Flames where invited to participate on the Cyprus Cup. Wijnants didn't made it to the selection at first but because of the injury of Laura de Neve she was called up in extremis for the selection. ^[11]

Belgium's first appearance at the Women's European Championships, their group stage exit at Euro 2017, came too early for Wijnants, but she was selected for the Red Flames' subsequent run to the quarter-finals at Euro 2022, where she did not score but did help Belgium out of their group for the first time ever.

In their second appearance at the continental finals, the Red Flames finished second in Group D behind group favourites France, against whom they conceded a narrow defeat (1–2), but ahead of Iceland with a 1-1 draw and Italy, who they edged out 1-0. Belgium lost 1-0 to Sweden in the quarter-finals. ^{[12] [13]}

At the start of 2022, Wijnants helped Belgium win the Pinatar Cup in Spain for the first time, beating Russia 7-6 on penalties in the final after a 0-0 draw. Wijnants scored Belgium's first successful penalty in the series, after the first had been missed by Davina Philtjens. ^[14]

She went on to contribute to Belgium's successful qualification for UEFA Women's Euro 2025 via the play-offs. ^{[15] [16]} Wijnants played in the group stages and in the play-off semi-final against Greece, but missed the victory over Ukraine in the play-off final on 3 December 2024.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 3 May 2017 ^[17]

Champions League
Year	Apps	Goals
2015	1	0
2016	3	1
Total	4	1

International

As of match played 6 October 2022 ^[18]

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Belgium	2017	4	0
	2018	4	0
	2019	1	0
	2020	2	0
	2021	7	1
	2022	8	1
Total		26	2

Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Wijnants goal.

List of international goals scored by Sarah Wijnants

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	25 November 2021	Den Dreef, Leuven, Belgium	Armenia	3–0	19–0	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying
2	16 February 2022	Pinatar Arena, San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain	Slovakia	4–0	4–0	Friendly
3	7 April 2022	Stadion Wiener Neustadt, Wiener Neustadt, Austria	Austria	1–0	2–3

Honours

Standard Liege

• Belgian Women's Super League: 2015-16, 2016-17

Anderlecht

• Belgian Women's Super League: 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24
• Belgian Women's Cup: 2022

Belgium

• Pinatar Cup: 2022

References

1. "Al onze Red Flames" [All our Red Flames]. RBFA (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-11-19.
2. "Biesmans en Wijnants spreken over hun vertrek bij Standard". Vrouwenvoetbalkrant.be (in Dutch). 2017-05-20. Retrieved 2017-06-04.
3. "Anderlecht champion de Belgique chez les dames" (in French). RTBF. 1 May 2018.
4. "OFFICIEEL: Anderlecht is kampioen ... Bij de vrouwen" (in Dutch). 27 March 2020.
5. "7 op een rij! Een dominant Anderlecht zet kroon op het werk in titelmatch tegen Genk" [7 in a row! A dominant Anderlecht puts the crown on the work in title match against Genk]. Sporza (in Dutch). 2024-05-25. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
6. URBSFA, Delaey Tom – Landsheere Koen – KBVB -. "Internationale wedstrijden – KBVB". static.belgianfootball.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-17.
7. URBSFA, Delaey Tom – Landsheere Koen – KBVB -. "Internationale wedstrijden – KBVB". static.belgianfootball.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-17.
8. URBSFA, Delaey Tom – Landsheere Koen – KBVB -. "Internationale wedstrijden – KBVB". static.belgianfootball.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-17.
9. URBSFA, Delaey Tom – Landsheere Koen – KBVB -. "Internationale wedstrijden – KBVB". static.belgianfootball.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-17.
10. URBSFA, Delaey Tom – Landsheere Koen – KBVB -. "Internationale wedstrijden – KBVB". static.belgianfootball.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-17.
11. "Sarah Wijnants vervangt Laura De Neve in Cyprus". Vrouwenvoetbalkrant.be (in Dutch). 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2017-05-17.
12. (in French) Euro féminin : qualifiées pour les quarts, les Red Flames ont déjà tout gagné
13. (in French) Euro féminin - Suède-Belgique : Les Red Flames éliminées en quart de finale dans les toutes dernières secondes
14. (in French) Les Red Flames remportent la Pinatar Cup face à la Russie, le tout premier trophée de leur histoire
15. "Red Flames dansen, zingen en glunderen na EK-kwalificatie: "Zeer belangrijk voor ons vrouwenvoetbal"" [Red Flames dance, sing and beam after European Championship qualification: "Very important for our women's football"]. Sporza (in Dutch). 2024-12-05.
16. "Het EK is binnen! Red Flames klaren ook laatste klus tegen Oekraïne na knappe goal en assist van Tessa Wullaert" [The European Championship is here! Red Flames complete final task against Ukraine after a great goal and assist from Tessa Wullaert]. Sporza (in Dutch). 2024-12-05.
17. "UEFA Women's Champions League". uefa.com. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
18. "Sarah Wijnants". www.rbfa.be.

External links

• Sarah Wijnants at the Royal Belgian Football Association
• Profile Standard Liège