Vivianne Miedema

Anna Margaretha Marina Astrid "Vivianne" Miedema (born 15 July 1996) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for FA Women's Super League (FA WSL) club Arsenal and the Netherlands national team.

She previously played for Bayern Munich and SC Heerenveen.

Regularly cited as one of the greatest strikers in modern women's football, Miedema is the all-time leading scorer in the FA WSL and has scored more goals at the international level for the Netherlands than any other player, across both the women's and men's teams.

After several years of playing for HZVV, she joined VV De Weide in 2009 and stayed with them until 2011.

With her father and younger brother Lars, Miedema would often travel 120 mi to Rotterdam in order to watch Feyenoord play.

At age 14, Miedema was forced to make the decision to continue playing with boys' clubs where she was used to beating them, or to switch to playing for the top women's league.

After receiving an offer from SC Heerenveen, Miedema signed her first professional contract as a 14-year-old and found herself playing in the Eredivisie, the top Dutch women's league, with players much older than herself.

She made her senior debut at 15 during a match against FC Utrecht on 2 September 2011, becoming the youngest ever player in the league.

In her debut season, the 2011–12 Eredivisie, she scored 10 goals in 17 games for Heerenveen, who finished last of seven teams.

Despite being a teenager, she shared the accolades of being the second-highest scorer in the league.

In 2012–13, playing in the new cross-border BeNe League, she improved her tally to 27 goals in 26 games.

Her 41 goals in 26 games for Heerenveen in the 2013–14 BeNe League season earned her the top-scorer award at the age of 17.

Her goal tally was 15 more than the nearest player.

39 different clubs made inquiries about signing Miedema, before she signed a three-year contract with Bayern Munich in the top German league, the Frauen-Bundesliga, in June 2014.

During the 2014–15 season, she was part of a Bayern team that remained unbeaten in the Bundesliga and won the title for the first time since 1976.

Miedema scored her first league goals in Germany on 5 October 2014 in a match against MSV Duisburg, leading to Bayern's 6–0 win.

In the match against SGS Essen on 30 November, Miedema tore the outer band of her ankle resulting in some time away from the pitch.

She re-emerged in the German league on 22 February 2015 against VfL Wolfsburg, scoring again in the following match, against Bayer Leverkusen.

Miedema finished the season with 7 goals in 17 matches.

She helped Bayern Munich defend the title the following season with 14 goals in 22 matches.

Miedema had been unhappy during her first three months in Germany because she could not speak German or English.

Although she overcame these difficulties, she later grew dissatisfied with Bayern's long ball tactics.

In the 2016–17 Frauen-Bundesliga season, Miedema scored 14 goals in 22 appearances but Bayern were deposed as champions by VfL Wolfsburg.

She added eight goals in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League as Bayern reached the quarter-final, in which they were beaten 4–1 on aggregate by Paris Saint-Germain.

Miedema was the top scorer of the Champions League season.

She won the UEFA Women's Euro in 2017 with the Dutch national team, two consecutive Frauen-Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich in 2015 and 2016, and the 2018–19 FA WSL title with Arsenal.

She was named to the Top 10 of The Guardian The 100 Best Female Footballers In The World in 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Born and raised in Hoogeveen, Miedema grew up watching her father play football and at five years old began playing herself for HZVV in her hometown.

Her first memory of playing football involves her two front teeth being kicked out by a young goalkeeper at age six.

She was a frequent goalscorer from a very young age and played on boys' teams.

When opponents laughed when they saw a girl on the pitch, it triggered her to score many goals, which she often did.

Miedema entered into contract negotiations with other leading clubs in Europe and the United States in 2017.

Although Bayern wanted to keep her, they were not prepared to break their pay structure.

Despite leading some "tough negotiations" with Miedema, manager Karin Danner was resigned to her departure: "she really wanted to change and we didn't want to break our structure for her in the end."

Bayern signed Miedema's compatriots Jill Roord and Lineth Beerensteyn as her replacements.

In 2019, she led the Netherlands to a second-place finish at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.

Miedema won the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award in November 2021.

She was named PFA Women's Players' Player of the Year in 2019.

She was shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or Féminin in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

In 2020, she was named Women's Player of the Year at the London Football Awards and by England's Football Writers' Association.