Wonder Women: Vivianne Miedema, The Young Dutch Star With A Career's Worth Of Accomplishments
WOMEN'S
Jenny Hojnacki
3 Yrs Ago
If you knew nothing about Dutch national team and Arsenal striker Vivianne Miedema and took one look at her resume, her list of accomplishments would leave you impressed with the type of career she has put together, the kind of career most players could only dream.
Two World Cup appearances and one final, a European Championship, club league titles in two different countries along with more than 200 goals at club level, and the most international goals ever scored by a Dutch player, male or female, with 69 goals in 88 national team appearances.
It is the kind of resume that any player would be proud to have at the end of a long and distinguished career. It also happens to be the resume Miedema has put together by the age of 23.
Some have likened her style of play to a combination of Dutch legends Marco Van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp, the kind of high praise that helps you understand how she has fashioned such an incredible career at such a young age.
If her career accomplishments weren’t enough to convince you, then her record-shattering performance last December in an Arsenal romp over Bristol City just might. Miedema scored six goals and registered four assists in an 11-1 thrashing that showed off all the strengths in her well-rounded game.
Miedema wasn’t always a leading forward for one of the elite women’s soccer teams in Europe. She began her career with SC Heerenveen in the Netherlands, where she learned the passing skills most often associated with an attacking midfielder while still scoring a ton of goals. Her stat line in 2013-14, when she scored a stunning 42 goals in only 27 games at the age of 17, showed that the Dutch league was way too easy for her.
So, she transferred to Bayern Munich, where she won the Bundesliga twice while playing in a long-ball oriented system that she felt minimized her talents and left her bored on the pitch.
Such an offensive system did not allow Miedema to showcase her finishing abilities or her passing skills, so she moved on to Arsenal in the summer of 2017. She now finds herself at a club where she is able to combine her ability to score with her desires to set up teammates as a number 10.
“I have lots of freedom at Arsenal and if you watch my games, yeah, I would say I play more like a 10,” she told Arseblog last fall. “I know I have my goal scoring qualities, but I like setting people up. I like to drop and pick up the ball and see if I can send someone through on goal.
“I like to see if there is someone in a better position than me. I am not bothered if I don’t score for one or two games if I know I have assisted others or that I have played well.”
Miedema was a key figure in the Dutch National Team’s run to the 2019 World Cup final, and while the Dutch eventually lost to the United States, it was still an impressive run by a young team with the weapons to continue challenging for the title of world’s best.
As for Miedema, she has yet to reach her prime but has cemented her status as one of the world’s best players, and is the youngest name you will find on any legitimate list of the world’s best.
As much as Miedema has already accomplished, there are still goals she hasn’t reached yet, goals that is capable of reaching. That includes winning a Champions League title, a Ballon d’Or and one day potentially winning a World Cup.
The idea of the Dutch women’s team winning a World Cup was unimaginable not too long ago for a team that had never advanced past the quarterfinals before 2019, but with Miedema leading a golden generation of young talent, it is a goal well within their grasp.