After opting not to extend her deal with Bayern München, Vivianne Miedema has today revelled Arsenal to be her new club

Beginnings

Still only twenty, Miedema has been well-known to women’s football fans around the world for a number of years. The Hoogeveen-born striker spent her youth career at local sides, HZVV (Hoogeveense Zaterdag Voetbal Vereniging) and VV de Weide (Voetbalvereniging de Weide), already a serious goal-threat she moved to SC Heerenveen at fifteen and began tearing up the Eredivisie. Although her Heerenveen team could get nowhere near the honours in the short-lived BeNe League, Miedema scooped the golden boot in the first two years of the season, her goal tally surpassing her games played.

With such an instinctive and deadly ability to score it wasn’t long before the young striker swapped Heerenveen for one of the giants of world football, Bayern Munich her club for the next three seasons.

Her first year with the Bavarians proved to be a successful one as they pipped Wolfsburg to the top spot by a lone point, her seven goals that year a modest haul as she got used to the pace of the league. A second year in the league saw improvements, Munich able to ease their way to the title with their nearest challengers ten points off of the pace, Miedema’s 14 an unquestionable boost for her team.

In her third and final year with Die Roten, Miedema matched her league tally of 14 goals, again coming second to FFC Frankfurt’s Mandy Islacker, her parting gift to her club a brace against SGS Essen in the last minutes of the season, without which they wouldn’t have secured UEFA Women’s Champions League football for the coming season.

Although her Munich side fell to the hosts in Paris, a fruitful campaign this season sees her tied for top goalscorer with Wolfsburg’s Zsanett Jakabfi on eight a piece, the Dutch attacker virtually unable to be stopped in the box.

Oranje

Throughout her time scoring domestically, Miedema was fast racking up caps and goals for the Netherlands, her senior debut at 17 a late cameo against Albania, since then she’s gone on to fire her way up the scoring tables, fast closing in on record goalscorer, Manon Melis.

A healthy return of 38 goals in 48 games a reminder on her clinical finishing, though she can be forgiven for not finding the back of the net at her first major senior tournament when she travelled to Canada with Holland for their first World Cup in 2015. The upcoming European Championships a real chance for Miedema to shine on the world stage.

A good fit for both

Speaking on the move, Gunners coach Pedro Martinez Losa was pleased with the ambition the signing displayed talking about the “level of talent” Miedema brings with her, their “ambitions” reflected with the signing and the club is “excited” to have her on board.

Speaking to FlowSports.Nl, the striker reflected on the “three great years” at Munich but the lure of something different in England was too much for the Dutch dynamo who spoke at length with compatriots at the London club. The attacking style one Miedema enjoys watching and is looking forward to being a part of, and after being well-courted but other teams around Europe she knew, in her gut, that Arsenal was the right club for her.

Miedema will join up with Arsenal at the start of the 2017-18 season after the European Championships, the length of her deal has not be released.