Manon Melis

Manon Melis
Manon with Netherlands in 2014
Personal information
Full name Gabriëlla Maria Melis[1]
Date of birth (1986-08-31) 31 August 1986 (age 38)
Place of birth Rotterdam, Netherlands
Height 1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)[2]
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
0000–2004 RVVH
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2006 RVVH
2006–2007 Be Quick '28
2007–2011 LdB FC Malmö 103 (84)
2011–2012 Sky Blue FC 0 (0)
2012 Linköpings FC 21 (16)
2013 LdB FC Malmö 21 (11)
2014–2015 Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC 42 (25)
2016 Seattle Reign FC 16 (7)
International career
2001–2002 Netherlands U17 9 (3)
2003–2004 Netherlands U19 21 (13)
2004–2016 Netherlands 136 (59)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gabriëlla Maria "Manon"[A] Melis (Dutch pronunciation: [ɣaːbriˈjɛlaː maːˈrijaː maːˈnɔ ˈmeːlɪs];[B] born 31 August 1986) is a Dutch manager of women's football development at Feyenoord and a former professional footballer who played as a forward. She spent most of her professional career playing in the Swedish league Damallsvenskan, which she won three times with her club LdB FC Malmö, in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Melis also won the Swedish Supercup with Malmö in 2011, and was briefly with the Swedish teams Linköping and Göteborg. She was the Damallsvenskan top scorer three times, in 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2016, she moved to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the US, playing for Seattle Reign for one season, before retiring from professional football.

At age 17, Melis made her debut for the Netherlands national team in 2004. Her scoring helped the Dutch qualify for their first major tournament, the UEFA Women's Euro 2009, where they reached the semi-finals. In the tournament, she scored a crucial goal in the final group game against Denmark to send her team into the knockout stage. At Euro 2013 in Sweden and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada, she played all seven combined matches for her country but did not score. When she retired from playing international football in 2016, she had earned 136 caps and scored 59 goals. She was the all-time top goal scorer for the Netherlands national team from 2010 to 2019.

Melis has been the manager of women's football development at Feyenoord since 2017 with the aim to create a first team that competes in the Dutch Eredivisie and is supported by youth and reserve teams. She achieved this goal when Feyenoord Women fielded a team in the Eredivisie for the first time in the 2021–22 season. Her father is former Feyenoord player Harry Melis.

  1. ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 – List of Players: Netherlands" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 6 July 2015. p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference eurosport was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Roepnamen en officiële namen vroeger" [Given names and official names]. Meertens Instituut (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2021.


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