Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema has been voted women’s footballer of the year by the Football Writers’ Association after a Women’s Super League season in which she scored 16 goals in 14 appearances.
The Netherlands forward got a double hat-trick in the 11-1 win over Bristol City in December and also provided four assists, and is the leading Champions League scorer with 10 goals.
She led the Netherlands’ charge to the 2019 Women’s World Cup final, which falls in this voting period, and finished the tournament with three goals, as her country’s record goalscorer and with a runners-up medal after a 2-0 defeat by the USA.
Miedema took the FWA award by one vote from Chelsea’s Beth England. Lucy Bronze and Guro Reiten were joint third and Ellen White fifth.
BREAKING - @VivianneMiedema is our new Women's Footballer of the Year.
— The FWA (@theofficialfwa) July 1, 2020
The Dutch @ArsenalWFC striker held off strong competition from Bethany England of @ChelseaFCW and other @Lionesses stars to become only our third winner. More to follow... pic.twitter.com/pMfd9oI49a
In her typically self-effacing style Miedema reserved thanks for her teammates: “Obviously I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and I can’t wait to be able to go out again and enjoy football again.”
Miedema missed out on last year’s award by a single vote to England’s Nikita Parris and in September the forward’s omission from the Fifpro World XI drew widespread criticism.
Miedema was the league’s top scorer for the second season in a row and ended with the most assists: eight. The preceding year she scored 22 goals in 20 WSL games, and 31 across all competitions.
Although the WSL season was brought to a premature conclusion by coronavirus, with Chelsea awarded the title on points per game, Miedema and Arsenal could end the campaign as European champions. They play a quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain in Spain on 22 August.
Jen O’Neill, chair of the FWA’s women’s sub-committee, said: “Vivianne’s clinical efficiency in front of goal and her seemingly effortless poise can mean her all-round ability and footballing intelligence are sometimes overlooked. She is a worthy winner and a world-class performer.”
