- News release
Amsterdam striker Van der Elst in rare form in Oranje
Amsterdam attacker Fay van der Elst is making a rare good start to her international career. After 14 appearances in the national team, ten goals are already behind her name.
Van der Elst is currently with the Dutch women in India, where the team played a Pro League match against England last Friday and Saturday. The Dutch won both matches by large numbers - 5-1 and 6-0 respectively - and Van der Elst accounted for one goal in both. That already brought her goal total to 10 after 14 appearances, including two assists.
In the last 58 years, only one other player needed a similar number of games for her first ten goals in the Dutch national team. That was her Felice Albers, Van der Elst's teammate with Amsterdam as well as Oranje. She reached the limit of ten international goals after only her first 12 international matches.
Rare score
We have to go very far back in time to discover internationals who scored ten times for the Oranje Dames even faster than Van der Elst and Albers. You can count them the fingers of one hand.
Nan van Halm-van Nierop (1952-1953) and Marjolein Jacquet-Francken (1948-1949) were already on ten goals after their first eight games for the Dutch national team. The record holder is the pre-war goalgetter Wally Plowright-Van Bueren, who needed only seven (!) international games in the period 1936-1938 to tap ten.
Incidentally, Ans Vogelzang-Beijer (1961-1963) and Maaike Esmeijer-Weijtens (1958-1960) also needed only 12 matches to score ten times.
