Shanice van de Sanden

Shanice van de Sanden
Van de Sanden with Lyon in 2019
Personal information
Full name Shanice Janice van de Sanden
Date of birth 2 October 1992
Place of birth Utrecht, Netherlands
Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
Liverpool
Number 19
Youth career
2006–2008 VVIJ
2008 SV Saestum
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008–2010 Utrecht 30 (5)
2010–2011 Heerenveen 21 (8)
2011–2016 Twente 103 (32)
2016–2017 Liverpool 23 (3)
2017–2020 Lyon 47 (11)
2020–2022 VfL Wolfsburg 25 (4)
2021–2022 VfL Wolfsburg II 6 (1)
2022– Liverpool 20 (2)
International career
2008 Netherlands U17 4 (1)
2008–2011 Netherlands U19 27 (9)
2008– Netherlands 96 (21)
Medal record
Women's football
Representing the Netherlands
FIFA Women's World Cup
Runner-up 2019 France
UEFA Women's Championship
Winner 2017 Netherlands
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19:00, 19 December 2023 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 19:00, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Shanice Janice van de Sanden (born 2 October 1992) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for Women's Super League club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Her career started at amateur club VVIJ in IJsselstein, before moving to FC Utrecht in 2008 where she also played for its farm team SV Saestum.

In May 2010, she moved to SC Heerenveen, where she played for one season before joining FC Twente in May 2011.

After four and a half seasons at FC Twente, she signed with Liverpool of the English WSL1 on 4 February 2016.

On 29 August 2017, after two seasons at Liverpool where she played a total of 28 matches (in all competitions), she moved to France and joined Division 1 Féminine club Olympique Lyonnais.

In September 2020 it was announced that Van de Sanden would be moving to Germany to play for Wolfsburg with immediate effect.

On 16 July 2022, Van de Sanden rejoined Liverpool.

International career

Aged 16, she made her debut for the senior Netherlands women's national football team on 14 December 2008 in a friendly match 2–0 win over France. She was part of the Dutch squad in the UEFA Women's Euro 2009 and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.

In June 2017, she was in the 23 players squad which won the UEFA Women's Euro 2017. After the tournament, the whole team was honoured by the Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister of Sport Edith Schippers and made Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Later that year, she was shortlisted for the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award.

Van de Sanden was selected in the final squad for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.

On 31 May 2023, she was named as part of the Netherlands provisional squad for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 17 December 2023
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Continental Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Utrecht 2008–09 Eredivisie 15 4 ? ? 15 4
2009–10 Eredivisie 15 1 ? ? 15 1
Total 30 5 ? ? 30 5
Heerenveen 2010–11 Eredivisie 21 8 ? ? 21 8
Twente 2011–12 Eredivisie 17 3 ? ? 1 0 18 3
2012–13 BeNe League 25 4 ? ? 25 4
2013–14 BeNe League 25 11 ? ? 4 1 29 12
2014–15 BeNe League 24 6 ? ? 2 0 26 6
2015–16 Eredivisie 12 8 ? ? 7 2 19 10
Total 103 32 ? ? 14 3 117 35
Liverpool 2016 Women's Super League 16 3 0 0 2 0 18 3
2017 Women's Super League 7 0 3 1 10 1
Total 23 3 3 1 2 0 28 4
Lyon 2017–18 D1 Féminine 16 2 2 0 5 0 23 2
2018–19 D1 Féminine 19 7 5 1 7 0 31 8
2019–20 D1 Féminine 11 2 2 0 3 0 16 2
2020–21 D1 Féminine 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Total 47 11 9 1 15 0 71 12
Wolfsburg 2020–21 Frauen-Bundesliga 15 2 2 1 2 1 19 4
2021–22 Frauen-Bundesliga 10 2 1 0 4 0 15 2
Total 25 4 3 1 6 1 34 6
Liverpool 2022–23 Women's Super League 14 1 0 0 1 0 15 1
2023–24 Women's Super League 6 1 0 0 2 0 8 1
Total 20 2 0 0 3 0 23 2
Career Total 269 65 15 3 5 0 35 4 324 72

International

As of match played 5 December 2023
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Netherlands 2008 1 0
2009 9 2
2010 4 0
2015 5 1
2016 13 6
2017 17 1
2018 11 4
2019 15 4
2020 7 0
2021 13 3
2023 1 0
Total 96 21
Scores and results list Netherlands's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each van de Sanden goal.
List of international goals scored by Shanice van de Sanden
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 12 March 2009 GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus South Africa 4–0 5–0 2009 Cyprus Women's Cup
2 13 July 2009 Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands 3–2 3–2 Four Nations Cup
3 20 May 2015 Sparta Stadion, Rotterdam, Netherlands Estonia 5–0 7–0 Friendly
4 22 January 2016 Limak Arcadia Atlantis Football Center, Belek, Turkey Denmark 2–0 2–0
5 2 March 2016 Kyocera Stadion, The Hague, Netherlands Switzerland 4–1 4–3 2016 Women's Olympic Qualifier
6 7 April 2016 Telstar Stadium, Velsen-Zuid, Netherlands New Zealand 1–0 2–0 Friendly
7 2–0
8 17 September 2016 Georgia Dome, Atlanta, United States United States 1–0 1–3
9 20 October 2016 Tony Macaroni Arena, Livingston, Scotland Scotland 6–0 7–0
10 16 July 2017 Stadion Galgenwaard, Utrecht, Netherlands Norway 1–0 1–0 UEFA Women's Euro 2017
11 28 February 2018 Bela Vista Municipal Stadium, Parchal, Portugal Japan 4–0 6–2 2018 Algarve Cup
12 6 April 2018 Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands Northern Ireland 5–0 7–0 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
13 8 June 2018 Shamrock Park, Portadown, Northern Ireland 3–0 5–0
14 5 September 2018 Rat Verlegh Stadion, Breda, Netherlands Denmark 2–0 2–0 2019 FIFA World Cup qualifier – Play-off SF
15 9 April 2019 AFAS Stadion, Alkmaar, Netherlands Chile 6–0 7–0 Friendly
16 1 June 2019 Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands Australia 1–0 3–0
17 3–0
18 8 November 2019 Bornova Stadium, Izmir, Turkey Turkey 1–0 8–0 2021 UEFA Women's Euro qualification
19 15 June 2021 De Grolsch Veste, Enschede, Netherlands Norway 6–0 7–0 Friendly
20 21 July 2021 Miyagi Stadium, Rifu, Japan Zambia 6–1 10–3 2020 Olympic Games
21 27 July 2021 Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan China 1–0 8–2

Honours

FC Utrecht
FC Twente

*During the BeNe League period (2012 to 2015), the highest placed Dutch team is considered as national champion by the Royal Dutch Football Association.

Lyon
Netherlands
Individual

We Play Strong

Van de Sanden is one of UEFA's official ambassadors for #WePlayStrong, a social media and vlogging campaign which was launched in 2018. The campaign's "...aim is to promote women’s football as much as we can and to make people aware of women’s football, really,” Evans, another participant explains. “The ultimate goal is to make football the most played sport by females by 2020. So it’s a UEFA initiative to get more women and girls playing football, whether they want to be professional or not.” The series, which also originally included professional footballers Sarah Zadrazil, Eunice Beckmann, Laura Feiersinger and Lisa Evans and now also includes Petronella Ekroth and Shanice van de Sanden, follows the daily lives of female professional footballers.

Personal life

Van de Sanden was born in the Netherlands and is of Surinamese descent. As of August 2020, Van de Sanden has a girlfriend. She welcomed a daughter in November 2023.