Aniek Nouwen (born 9 March 1999) is a Dutch professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a defender for

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Early Career

Nouwen played with the SV Deurne boys' team for 11 years, before joining PSV aged 17.

PSV

Since 2016, Nouwen played professionally for PSV at the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

, where she recorded 69 appearances and 15 goals for the team. In 2017 and 2018, she and her team were runners-up of the

KNVB Women's Cup The KNVB Women's Cup ( nl, KNVB Beker voor Vrouwen) is the cup competition for women's football in the Netherlands. The competition was established in 1980, along with the KNVB Amateur Cup. From the 2007-08 season onwards, the first round of th ...

, the cup competition for women's football in the Netherlands.

Chelsea

On 12 May 2021, Nouwen agreed pre-contract terms on a three-year deal with

which commits her to the club until the summer of 2024. She joined them ahead of the 2021/22 campaign. On 10 October 2021, Nouwen made her first league start for Chelsea in a 2–0 victory against

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, a game in which she would play 90 minutes. On 26 February 2022, Nouwen scored her first goal for Chelsea in a

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

fifth round tie against Leicester City, a game in which Chelsea would go onto win 7–0. A month later on 27 March 2022, Nouwen scored her first league goal for Chelsea. Once again Leicester City were the opponents, in a game that saw Chelsea win 9–0 away from home. On 8 May 2022, Nouwen won her first league title as Chelsea lifted the

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

trophy on the final day with a 4–2 victory against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. On 15 May 2022, Nouwen lifted her second trophy with Chelsea as they defeated

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

for the FA Cup, Nouwen played 69 minutes. On 1 December 2023, Nouwen sustained an anterior cruciate ligament rupture in a friendly with the Netherlands under-23 team against Scotland under-23.

Milan (loan)

On 21 January 2023, it was announced that Nouwen had joined Italian side

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season, while at the same time it was announced she had signed a new deal to remain at Chelsea until 2025. Nouwen played all 90 minutes in each of her final 10 matches for Milan, and helped the club finish third in the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

International career

Nouwen played for Netherlands U17 team at the

2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-17 football competition played in 2014 and 2015 to determine the seven teams joining Iceland, who qualified automatically as hosts, in the 2015 UEFA Women's Un ...

and at the

2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification The 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification' was a women's under-17 football competition organised by UEFA to determine the seven national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Belarus in the 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Ch ...

. In both occasions, the Dutch team failed to qualify to the tournament's Elite round. She also played for the Netherlands U19 team at the

2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (20th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football champ ...

and at the

2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2018) was the 17th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (21st edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football champ ...

. In 2017, the team reached the semi-finals where they lost 3–2 to

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. In 2018, the team was eliminated in the Group Stage due to the goal difference criteria. Nouwen played in all matches for the Netherlands in both tournaments. In 2018, Nouwen was called to represent the Netherlands U20 team at the

2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its i ...

. Again, she played all of her team's matches in the tournament. The Dutch team was eliminated in quarter-finals after losing 2–1 for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. On 4 March 2019, Nouwen made her debut for the Netherlands senior national team when she started and played 63 minutes in the 1–0 defeat for

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Two days later, on 6 March, she recorded her second international cap when she replaced Siri Worm in the 66th minute of the match against

China PR China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. On 23 October 2020, Nouwen scored her first goal for the Netherlands senior national team in a 7–0 victory over

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

which saw the side qualify for the Women's Euros in 2022. Her second came on 28 June 2022 in a 3–0 victory over Belarus in a World Cup qualifying game. Nouwen was named to the Netherlands squad for the 2023 World Cup. She made two appearances during the tournament.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Netherlands' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nouwen goal.''

Honours

PSV *

: 2021 Chelsea *

: 2021–22 *

: 2021–22