Joëlle Smits (born 7 February 2000) 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 lea ...

who plays as a striker for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

Club career

Smits started her youth career with OJC Rosmalen at the age of six. She spent eight years there playing alongside boys before moving to Brabant United. In 2015, she moved to CTO Eindhoven. In May 2017, Smits signed her first professional contract with

club

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

. She made her debut on 1 September in a 3–0 league win against

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

. She scored in 58th minute of the game before being replaced by Bente Jansen. She scored 25 goals in 21 league matches during the 2018–19 season to help her club win the league title. In February 2019, it was confirmed that Smits would join PSV prior to the 2019–20 season. She was top Eredivisie scorer when football leagues across Netherlands were suspended by Dutch government in March 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 15 September 2020, German

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German language, German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. I ...

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

announced that Smits has signed a three-year contract with the club, which would start in July 2021. On 5 June 2021, she played her last match for PSV in the cup final against

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

. She scored the only goal in the match to win PSV's first trophy in its history. With 52 goals from 45 matches across all competitions, Smits left the club as PSV's all-time top scorer. During her only season with Wolfsburg, Smits won the German league and domestic cup titles. On 3 June 2022, her contract with the club was terminated by mutual agreement. She returned to her former club PSV on the same day, signing a three-year contract until June 2025. On 30 June 2025, Smits joined

on a two-year contract until June 2027.

International career

Smits is a former Dutch youth international and has represented her nation with different age level teams. On 21 October 2016, she scored seven goals in her team's 11–0 win against

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

during 2017 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifiers. She was also part of Netherlands under-19 team that reached semi-finals of

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is an annual competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belon ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. With 15 goals from 16 matches, she holds the record for most caps and goals for the Netherlands under-16 team. Similarly, with 33 goals from 38 matches, Smits is the most capped player and all-time top scorer of the Netherlands under-19 team. Smits made her senior team debut on 4 March 2020 in a friendly against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. She came on as an 84th-minute substitute for

Vivianne Miedema Anna Margaretha Marina Astrid "Vivianne" Miedema (; born 15 July 1996) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for FA Women's Super League, Women's Super League club Manches ...

before the match ended in a goalless draw. On 16 June 2021, Smits was named as a stand-by player for

2020 Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. On 20 July, she was added to the final squad as a replacement for injured

Sherida Spitse Sherida Spitse (; born 29 May 1990) is a Dutch Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for AFC Ajax (women), Ajax and the Netherlands women's national football team, Netherlands national team. Club career Spitse started her c ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Twente *

: 2018–19 PSV *

KNVB Women's Cup The KNVB Women's Cup () is the cup competition for women's football in the Netherlands. The competition was established in 1980, along with the KNVB Amateur Cup. It is organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (K''oninklijke Nederlandse ...

: 2020–21 * Eredivisie Cup: 2024–25 VfL Wolfsburg *

: 2021–22 *

DFB-Pokal Frauen The DFB-Pokal Frauen is the main national Women's association football, women's football cup competition in Germany, held annually by the German Football Association in knockout format. It was created in 1980, and since 1991 includes Eastern teams ...

: 2021–22 Individual *

top scorer: 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Club career

International career

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

References

External links