Vivianne Miedema reached a milestone on Saturday in the European Championship match against Wales by scoring her hundredth international goal. National coach Andries Jonker and her teammates are impressed. “That girl only sets records.”
Van de Donk walked to Miedema jokingly after the match. “I said that we had to take a picture together, because I gave all the assists to her,” she said laughing. “No, that’s too much credit for myself. There are not that many, but a few. I can easily find ‘Viv’ on the field.”
The 33-year-old Van de Donk has experienced all hundred international goals from Miedema. She already played in Orange for three years when Miedema debuted in 2013 at the age of seventeen. “She was really a young flower that just joined.”
Van de Donk quickly realized that Miedema is “super special”. “I actually wanted to score all those goals myself back then. But she shot them all in. While I thought: hey, pass that ball, I want to shoot them in. I realized that I could better pass the ball to her.”
‘Hundred goals is not normal’
Sherida Spitse has also known Miedema from a young age. The record international was on the field when Miedema scored her first international goal in a World Cup qualifier against Portugal. She then scored a hat-trick within sixteen minutes. It was only Miedema’s second international match.
“Yes, she can do that very well of course,” said Spitse. “You could see from the beginning that she could play football. She has a lot of qualities. It’s cut, cut and then a good shot. The fact that she now has a hundred goals is very special. That is not normal. She can be proud of this.”
Van de Donk is also full of praise. “Really, that girl… She only sets records and breaks them everywhere. She is an extremely good player. It is extra impressive that she is doing this after all that injury trouble. I am very happy that she is back.”
Andries Jonker said after the match that Miedema and Lieke Martens are the two best players he has worked with. “The others are great, but they are a little bit better.”
The national coach describes Miedema as “a player of the exceptional category”. She reminds him of Marco van Basten. “When I watched him with my feet on the couch, I sometimes thought: that ball should go to the right. But then he thought: it should go to the left. And that turned out to be much better.”
“Vivianne also has that unpredictability. Then she makes a cutting movement and I think: shoot now. But no, she’s going to cut again. That’s also an idea. It’s great when you have that kind of players at your disposal. Who don’t do the logical thing, but the creative thing. And also execute it great. That’s food for the enthusiast.”