Vivianne Miedema turns 30: Let's recall this special player and dutch icon of women's football

Vivianne Miedema, one of the greatest icons of the current generation of female footballers, celebrates her 30th birthday on 15 June 1996. Let us look back at the story of this generational striker.

Her story began on 15 July 1996 in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands. In a family where football was a natural part of life. Her father loved football and passed his passion on to his children, Vivianne and Lars. Little Viv grew up admiring Dutch footballer Robin van Persie and Feyenoord.

The Dutch giant was the club that captivated Vivianne and Lars, even though they did not live in Rotterdam. Their father took them to matches on special occasions, which made them look forward to them even more.

Lost teeth can't stop her

Like many talented footballers of her generation, Vivianne Miedema started out playing among boys. And she quickly showed that she did not belong there only because there was no girls’ team available. She belonged there because of her ability. And even though she knocked out her front teeth during one of her first training sessions, it did not discourage her from football. Quite the opposite. Every following match confirmed that she was an extraordinary talent.

When Miedema was 15, the rules no longer allowed her to play with boys. She moved to Heerenveen’s women’s team and almost immediately began rewriting expectations. She scored an incredible 78 goals in 69 league matches. It was clear that she would not stay in the Dutch league for long. This player was aiming higher.

And it did not take long. A major challenge stood before Miedema. One of Europe’s biggest clubs. Bayern Munich. By then, she was also regularly wearing the shirt of the Netherlands national team, for whom she made her debut as a teenager. It was clear that Dutch football had found its future face.

The year 2017 became one of the most important moments of her career. The Netherlands, led by Sarina Wiegman, sensationally won the title at the UEFA Women's  European Championship on home soil, and Miedema was one of the key figures of the golden generation. In the same year, she moved to Arsenal, where the talented goalscorer became a club legend.

During seven seasons in north London, she became the all-time leading goalscorer in the history of Arsenal’s women’s team. Eighty league goals in 106 matches are not only proof of productivity. They are a reminder of her extraordinary efficiency and football intelligence. Alongside the title in the 2018/19 season and two League Cups, Miedema also regularly topped the league goalscoring charts.

Record breaker

When she signed a new contract in 2022, she became the highest-paid player in the Women’s Super League. It was not only a personal achievement. It was another small step in the transformation of women’s football, which was beginning to reward its best players in the way they deserved.

Two years later, she set off for a new challenge at Manchester City. The transfer came after a difficult period marked by a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury, which ruled her out for a large part of the season and the World Cup. Even though this period was har for her with torn ACL and new club in the new city, Miedema continued to tell her football story.

At the 2025 European Championship, she made history as the first Dutch footballer to score one hundred international goals. A year later, she helped Manchester City win a domestic double and extended her contract with the club.

Even so, it seems that Vivianne Miedema’s legacy does not lie only in records. At a time when athletes are often expected to be constantly visible, she has always been more of a quiet personality. She did not need to be the loudest person in the room to influence an entire sport.

Perhaps that is exactly why her career feels so exceptional. She did not build it on grand gestures or a carefully constructed image. She built it on football.

Off the pitch, she is just as understated as she is on it. She is known for her love of Taylor Swift’s music, she and her partner Beth Mead form one of the best-known couples in women’s football, and together they look after their dog Myle. Although Miedema protects her privacy, she recently shared some sad news with fans.

In a season when Manchester City won the Women’s Super League fairly dominantly and Miedema played a major part in that triumph, she was absent towards the end of the season for personal reasons. She later revealed that it was because of her mother’s serious illness.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for Vivianne and her family, hoping that everything will be all right, and wishing her many goals in the future.