Manon Melis is a retired Dutch professional footballer who played as a forward for the Netherlands women's national team from 2004 to 2016. During her international career she scored 59 goals from 136 games. ^[1] From 2010 to 2019 she was the all-time top goalscorer for her country. ^{[2] [3]}

Melis scored on her debut for the senior national team on 25 April 2004, in an away game against Belgium, aged 17. ^{[1] [4]} Not until her 16th cap did she score again. ^{[1] [5]} An even longer goal drought followed, playing 17 matches in which she was unable to score her third. ^{[1] [6]} She helped the Dutch qualify for their first major finals by scoring in six of the eight matches in UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying. At the finals held in Finland Melis played five matches, in which she scored once, against Denmark. ^{[7] [8]} On 21 August 2010 Melis became the all-time top goalscorer for the Netherlands after scoring twice against Belarus, her 29th and 30th international goals. ^{[2] [9]} She overtook Marjoke de Bakker's goal tally of 29, achieved between 1979 and 1991. ^[2] At the 2013 Euros she played three matches but did not score and the Netherlands were eliminated at the group stage. ^{[1] [10]}

Melis earned her last cap on 9 March 2016 in a home game against Sweden, a qualification game for the 2016 Olympics. ^{[11] [12]} She scored her last goal, her 59th, in the penultimate match of her career, against Norway. Hers was the only Dutch goal in the 4–1 loss. ^[13] Her highest number of goals in one match was four, scored in a 6–0 win over Serbia in 2011. ^[14] In September 2013, she scored a hat-trick against Albania during 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification. ^[15] Serbia and Switzerland are the teams against which she has scored the most, six goals total, from two and six games respectively. Four of her 59 goals came from penalties; 25 were scored on home soil. Her most productive year was 2011 with 10 goals from 12 games. ^[1] For nearly nine years Melis held the all-time goalscoring record, until 15 June 2019, when Vivianne Miedema surpassed Melis by scoring her 60th goal in a 3–1 win over Cameroon at a group stage match at the FIFA World Cup Finals in France. ^[3] As of December 2020 Melis ranked second on the all-time goalscoring list for the Netherlands women's football team. ^[16]

International goals

"Score" represents the score in the match after Melis's goal. "Score" and "Result" list the Netherlands' goal tally first. Cap represents the player's appearance in an international level match at senior level. ^[1]

Goals by Melis for the Netherlands' senior national team

G	C	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref
1	1	25 April 2004	Den Dreef, Leuven, Belgium	Belgium	2–0	3–0	2005 UEFA Women's Euro qualification	[4]
2	16	12 October 2005	Oosterenkstadion, Zwolle, Netherlands	Switzerland	5–0	6–0	Friendly	[5]
3	34	21 February 2007	Mitsubishi Forklift Stadion, Almere, Netherlands	Italy	2–0	2–0		[6]
4	35	14 March 2007	County Ground, Swindon, England	England	1–0	1–0		[17]
5	37	9 May 2007	Herti Allmend Stadion, Zug, Switzerland	Switzerland	1–0	2–2	2009 UEFA Women's Euro qualification	[18]
6	39	26 August 2007	Veronica Stadium, Volendam, Netherlands	Wales	1–0	2–1		[19]
7	40	1 October 2007	Mitsubishi Forklift Stadion, Almere, Netherlands	France	1–4	1–4	Friendly	[20]
8	42	27 January 2008	Frank Cooke Park, Dublin, Ireland	Republic of Ireland	1–0	1–1		[21]
9	43	20 February 2008	Newport Stadium, Newport, Wales	Wales	1–0	1–0	2009 UEFA Women's Euro qualification	[22]
10	44	23 April 2008	Patrostadion, Maasmechelen, Belgium	Belgium	2–2	2–2		[23]
11	46	30 August 2008	Den Haag Stadion, The Hague, Netherlands	Switzerland	1–0	1–1		[24]
12	47	27 September 2008	Kras Stadion, Volendam, Netherlands	Belgium	1–0	3–0		[25]
13					2–0
14	48	5 March 2009	Makario Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Russia	1–0	2–1	2009 Cyprus Cup	[26]
15					2–1
16	50	12 March 2009	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	South Africa	1–0	5–0		[27]
17					3–0
18	51	11 July 2009	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Switzerland	2–0	5–0	Four Nations Cup	[28]
19	52	15 July 2009		China	2–4	2–4		[29]
20	54	8 August 2009	Koning Willem II Stadion, Tilburg, Netherlands	Poland	1–0	2–0	Friendly	[30]
21	58	29 August 2009	Lahden Stadion, Lahti, Finland	Denmark	2–0	2–1	2009 UEFA Women's Euro	[8]
22	62	29 October 2009	Oosterenkstadion, Zwolle, Netherlands	Macedonia	3–0	13–1	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	[31]
23	64	24 February 2010	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Scotland	1–0	4–1	2010 Cyprus Cup	[32]
24					3–1
25	65	26 February 2010	Ammochostos Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	New Zealand	1–1	1–1		[33]
26	67	3 March 2010	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Switzerland	1–0	4–0		[34]
27	69	22 April 2010	Gradski Stadion, Kumanovo, Macedonia	Macedonia	5–0	7–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	[35]
28	70	19 June 2010	Oosterenkstadion, Zwolle, Netherlands	Norway	1–0	2–2		[36]
29	71	21 August 2010	Haradzki Stadium, Maladzechna, Belarus	Belarus	2–0	4–0		[9]
30					3–0
31	72	2 March 2011	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	New Zealand	2–0	4–1	2011 Cyprus Cup	[37]
32					3–0
33	73	4 March 2011	Ammochostos Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	France	2–1	2–1		[38]
34	77	18 May 2011	De Koel, Venlo, Netherlands	North Korea	1–1	1–1	Friendly	[39]
35	80	24 August 2011	Hohhot City Stadium, Hohhot, China	China	1–0	1–0		[40]
36	81	21 September 2011	TATA Steel Stadion, Velsen-Zuid, Netherlands	Serbia	1–0	6–0	2013 UEFA Women's Euro qualification	[14]
37					3–0
38					5–0
39					6–0
40	82	22 October 2011	Gradski stadion, Vrbovec, Croatia	Croatia	1–0	3–0		[41]
41	85	28 February 2012	GSZ Stadium, Larnaca, Cyprus	Italy	1–1	2–1	2012 Cyprus Cup	[42]
42	89	5 April 2012	De Koel, Venlo, Netherlands	Slovenia	3–1	3–1	2013 UEFA Women's Euro qualification	[43]
43	91	20 June 2012	Stadion Srem Jakovo, Jakovo, Serbia	Serbia	1–0	4–0		[44]
44					2–0
45	97	9 April 2013	Kyocera Stadion, The Hague, Netherlands	United States	1–3	1–3	Friendly	[45]
46	102	26 September 2013	Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Albania	Albania	1–0	4–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	[15]
47					2–0
48					3–0
49	104	23 November 2013	Stadion Woudestein, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Greece	4–0 ‡	7–0		[46]
50	107	7 March 2014	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	Scotland	3–4	3–4	2014 Cyprus Cup	[47]
51	109	5 April 2014	Pankritio Stadium, Heraklion, Greece	Greece	1–0	6–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification	[48]
52	115	25 October 2014	Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland	Scotland	2–0 ‡	2–1		[49]
53	116	30 October 2014	Sparta Stadion, Rotterdam, Netherlands		2–0	2–0		[50]
54	123	8 April 2015	Strømmen Stadion, Strømmen, Norway	Norway	2–1	3–2	Friendly	[51]
55	124	30 May 2015	York Stadium, Toronto, Canada	Sweden	1–0	1–2		[52]
56	131	29 November 2015	Kras Stadion, Volendam, Netherlands	Japan	2–0	3–1		[53]
57					3–1 ‡
58	134	2 March 2016	Kyocera Stadion, The Hague, Netherlands	Switzerland	1–1 ‡	4–3	2016 UEFA Women's Olympic qualification	[54]
59	135	5 March 2016	Het Kasteel, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Norway	1–2	1–4		[13]

Statistics

Appearances and goals by year [1] National team Year Apps Goals Netherlands 2004 7 1 2005 11 1 2006 15 0 2007 8 5 2008 6 6 2009 16 9 2010 8 8 2011 12 10 2012 10 4 2013 11 5 2014 14 4 2015 13 4 2016 5 2 Total 136 59

Goals by competition Competition Goals Friendlies 13 FIFA World Cup qualifiers 12 UEFA European Championship qualifiers 16 FIFA World Cup finals 0 UEFA European Championship finals 1 Other 17 Total 59

See also

•   Women's association football portal

References