Merel van Dongen

Merel Didi van Dongen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmeːrəl ˈdidi vɑn ˈdɔŋən]; born 11 February 1993) is a Dutch footballer who plays as a defender for Spanish Primera División club Atlético Madrid and the Netherlands women's national team.[2]

Merel van Dongen
Merel van Dongen training with the Netherlands on 6 November 2018.
Personal information
Full name Merel Didi van Dongen[1]
Date of birth (1993-02-11) 11 February 1993
Place of birth Amsterdam, Netherlands
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s) Defender, fullback
Club information
Current team
 Atlético Madrid
Number 5
Youth career
2012–2014 Alabama Crimson Tide
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2010–2011 Ter Leede
2011–2012 ADO 10 (2)
2015–2018 Ajax 71 (9)
2018–2020 Real Betis 46 (5)
2020– Atlético Madrid 13 (3)
National team‡
2015– Netherlands 45 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:07, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 1 December 2020

Club career

She played for Ter Leede and ADO Den Haag before going to the United States where she played for Alabama Crimson Tide. She returned to the Netherlands in 2015 and signed with AFC Ajax.[3]

College career

In Van Dongen's two years at Alabama she managed to become the Tide's single season assists leader registering 10 in 2014. She is No. 1 on Alabama's career assists per game list with 0.30 through 44 games, and her 10 assists in 2014 allowed her to take the No. 1 spot on the single season assists per game list with 0.53 through 19 games. Van Dongen converted four penalty kicks during her career with Alabama, which ranks fourth on the career penalty kicks made list.

In her last season with the Crimson Tide, she was selected to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-American team and All-District 4 First Team and named a member of the All-SEC Second Team.[4]

International career
Merel van Dongen training with the Netherlands on November 6, 2018

As a junior international she played the 2010 and 2011 U-19 European Championships.[5]

Van Dongen made her senior Netherlands women's national football team debut in a 7–0 friendly win over Thailand on 7 February 2015.[3] She was one of the last three players to be cut from national team coach Roger Reijners' final squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2013 in Sweden.[6] When Mandy van den Berg subsequently suffered knee ligament damage, Van Dongen was called up as a late replacement.[7] She was also part of the Dutch squad at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.[1]

International goals
Scores and results list the Netherlands goal tally first.[8]
GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.20 May 2015Sparta Stadion, Rotterdam, Netherlands Estonia3–07–0Friendly

Personal life

She is in a relationship with Ana Romero.[9]

Honours

ADO Den Haag

Ajax

International

References
  1. "List of Players - Netherlands" (PDF). FIFA. 30 May 2015. p. 16. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  2. "Profile". FIFA.com. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  3. "Merel van Dongen". VrouwenvoetbalNederland.NL. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  4. "Two Former Alabama Soccer Standouts Named to 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Roster". rolltide.com. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  5. Last-gasp Rudelic grabs victory for Germany. UEFA
  6. "Trio miss cut in Netherlands squad". UEFA.com. UEFA. 30 June 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  7. Scholten, Berend (1 July 2013). "Van Dongen replaces Van den Berg for Oranje". UEFA.com. UEFA. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  8. "Profile". onsoranje.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  9. "Merel van Dongen: graag was ik als eerste man uit de kast gekomen". NRC.
  10. "Finale Algarve Cup tussen Oranjevrouwen en Zweden afgelast" (in Dutch). nu.nl. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
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