Arsenal unveil a statue of Vivianne Miedema

Adidas and Arsenal have come together to immortalise one of the club’s greatest players ahead of a landmark night for the North London club.

As the Gunners prepare to face off against Tottenham Hotspur in the Women’s Super League – the first Women’s North London Derby to ever take place at the Emirates – a statue of Vivianne Miedema will be placed outside the ground alongside other legends of the club like Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

Vivianne has already proven to be a legend of the club, collecting a number of records already, including the most goals in the WSL with 64, the most goals in a single WSL season (22 in the 2018-2019 season) and the most WSL goals at one club.

The statue was originally created as part of the Adidas campaign’ support is everything’, which looked to highlight the fact that there were more statues of animals than women in London. This led to the creation of eight statues of women who can inspire the next generation.

One of the finest

The Arsenal forward has established herself as one of the finest players in world football, breaking goal scoring records in the WSL, winning the European Championships with the Netherlands and being crowned the 2021 BBC Footballer of the Year.

The Netherlands international moved to Arsenal in 2017, and during her five seasons in the WSL, she has become the league’s all-time top scorer and the first person in the division’s history to reach 100 goal contributions.

“These records don’t really mean too much to me right now because I’m just focussed on being the best player I can be for my team,” Miedema said. “I don’t really like being the centre of attention. I am quite private, I am quite closed off, and still sometimes now I do struggle with the pressure of football.”

She has scored more goals at the international level for the Netherlands than any other player across both the women’s and men’s teams. She won the UEFA Women’s Euro in 2017 with the Dutch national team, two consecutive Frauen-Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich in 2015 and 2016, and the 2018–19 FA WSL title with Arsenal. In 2019, she led the Netherlands to a second-place finish at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.

Miedema grew up as a Feyenoord supporter and modelled her game on Robin van Persie. As she is Dutch and wore number 10 for Bayern Munich, she has been compared to Arjen Robben. Former Arsenal striker Kelly Smith said of Miedema, “She scores goals with her left and right foot, her head, she sets goals up. For me, she is just the complete striker, and she’s the best in the world at the moment. She’s always a threat no matter what minute of the game it is. I think her movement is very clever, and her finishing ability is phenomenal. When she’s in front of goal it’s just this calm, composed approach that she has.”