Donyell Malen Biography

Donyell Malen, born 19 January 1999 in Wieringen, the Netherlands, is a Dutch international footballer who is now playing as a striker for the German club Borussia Dortmund in Bundesliga. He began his career at the youth level with Ajax Amsterdam. He moved to English club Arsenal in 2015, playing in the youth ranks of the English clubs for two seasons.

He then returned to the Netherlands in 2017, where he was offered a contract with PSV Eindhoven. He first started with the reserves before making his first appearance for the first team on 3 February 2018, in a 4-0 win over PEC Zwolle. Between 2018 and 2021, Donyell Malen played a total of 81 league matches for PSV Eindhoven, scoring 40 goals.

His good performances in the PSV Eindhoven jersey caught the attention of bigger European clubs and it was on 27 July 2021 that Donyell Malen agreed to join Borussia Dortmund and signed a contract until the end of the season. His contract runs until June 2026. Since his arrival in Borussia Dortmund, Malen has so far appeared in 15 Bundesliga matches for the club and scored 3 goals.

All You Need to Know About Donyell Malen Biography

He participated in two European Championships with the U17s, in 2015 and 2016. He failed to progress beyond the first round of the competition in 2015, but reached the semi-finals in 2016, losing to Portugal. Between 2014 and 2018, Donyell Malen played a total of 55 matches for different youth ranks of the Dutch national team.

Since 2019 and after playing his international debut against

in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, Donyell Malen has been a part of the senior Dutch national team, representing his country in a total of 17 international matches and scoring 4 goals.

Donyell Malen Information

Now that we know the Serbian football coach much better, in this section of

Donyell Malen biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Donyell Malen nationality

to let you know him even better.

Donyell Malen Bio

• Full Name: Donyell Malen

• Nickname: N/A

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Donyell Malen Physical Stats

• Weight: 70 Kg

• Height: 1.76 m

• Eye Color: Dark Brown

• Hair Color: Dark Brown

Donyell Malen Football Information

• Position: Striker

• Jersey Number: 21

• Professional Debut: 2017

Donyell Malen Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 19 January 1999

• Birth Place: Wieringen, Netherlands

• Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

• Nationality: Dutch

Now stay tuned to this section of

Donyell Malen biography

as we want to share some info about

Donyell Malen childhood

.

Donyell Malen Early Life

At the age of 5, Malen's football career began in Hippolytushoef, a neighbouring town of Wieringen, where he played for VV Succes. He then went to Hoorn, 40 kilometres away, to join HVV Hollandia, where the first men's team was playing in the fourth division of the Dutch league at the time.

Malen was accepted into Ajax Amsterdam's renowned youth academy when he was nine years old, and former international striker Dennis Bergkamp was coaching him in the U10s. Among the 1999 intake were other later senior internationals like Matthijs de Ligt and Justin Kluivert.

Having seen no chance of playing as a professional for Ajax in the long term, after receiving offers from Premier League clubs and appearances for Dutch youth national teams, Malen eventually moved to Arsenal's academy as a B youth after a meeting with his advisor Mino Raiola and Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal coach. His mother moved to England with her son to have someone close to him in a foreign country.

Now stay tuned to this section of

Donyell Malen biography

as we want to share some info about his career at Arsenal.

Arsenal

Later on, Frank de Boer, Ajax's first-team coach at the time, stated that the young Donyell was firmly in the club's plans and that the youth team was relying on him as a replacement for Kasper Dolberg, who had managed to get into senior football.

In Amsterdam, Malen, who at the time was influenced by the Brazilian Ronaldinho, had been deployed as a centre-forward, but former French World and European champion Thierry Henry, who at the time was coach of Arsenal's U23s, taught him to play as a winger in order to increase his flexibility. Andries Jonker, the Dutch manager of Arsenal's youth academy, accused the newcomer of being "a few kilos overweight" and of lacking fitness and motivation.

During the 2015-16 season, he was a member of the London club's youth team, playing in the UEFA Youth League and making regular appearances in the youth league and cup. In the UEFA Youth League, he provided an assist in a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich in October 2015, and also scored in the U18 Premier League against

and West Bromwich Albion.

In the quarter-final of the FA Youth Cup, he scored against Coventry City, with his team progressing on penalties, while he found the net as a substitute against

in the semi-final. He signed his first professional contract with the club on 6 February 2016. During the 2015-16 season, he scored fourteen goals in a total of thirty competitive matches.

He scored in the 3-0 defeat of Brighton and Hove in the 2016-17 season and provided an assist in the draw against

. He also assisted a goal in the 1-1 draw against Basel in Switzerland in the UEFA Youth League. In the U18 Premier League, he scored against Leicester City and Southampton in January 2017.

He played for Arsenal U23s in February and March 2017, and scored and assisted in their 2-0 win over city rivals Tottenham In the following months, he also scored against Manchester City and Sunderland After the season ended, he and the U18s finished second in the U18s in the senior league.

He was included in the senior team squad on 9 July 2017, which played pre-season training matches in Australia and China in the summer before the following season. He made his first-team debut for Arsenal in a 2-0 win over Sydney FC on 13 July 2017.

Subsequently, he was also given a game in the pre-season friendly against

and was highly praised by Arsène Wenger for his performances. Considering all age-group teams and all league games, he has scored 27 goals in 67 appearances for the club.

Donyell Malen Profile

Towards the end of the summer transfer window for the 2017/18 season, although he was offered a contract renewal by Arsenal, Malen nonetheless moved back to the Netherlands, joined PSV Eindhoven and was given a contract that initially ran until June 2020. With him, other players born between 1997-1999 such as Chris Willock, Dan Crowley, Ismaël Bennacer and Kaylen Hinds also left the Gunners.

Now stay tuned to this section of Donyell Malen biography as we want to share some info about his career at PSV Eindhoven.

PSV Eindhoven

Malen made his professional football debut on 8 September 2017. On that day he played a match in the First Division with Jong PSV, against

with a 1-2 win. In the 64th minute, he entered the field as a substitute for Nikolai Laursen.

His first regular spot followed a week later, in an away match against MVV Maastricht which was a 0-0 draw. Malen netted his first goal in professional football on 24 November 2017. He then took Jong PSV to both 3-0 and 4-0 during a 6-0 league win at home against Telstar. Subsequently, Malen also scored one or more goals in the next five matches of Young PSV.

In January 2018, he was awarded the Bronze Bull for the most talented player in the second period of the 2017/18 season in the First Division. On 2 April 2018, Malen scored a hat-trick for the first time in the First Division. He scored both the 1-0, the 4-1 and the 5-1 during a 5-1 win at home against FC Oss.

Malen made his first-team debut for PSV on 3 February 2018. At the time, he stepped in for Luuk de Jong in the 82nd minute during a 4-0 league win at home against

. Later that season Malen was given three more opportunities to play for the first team as a substitute.

The then newly appointed head coach Mark van Bommel transferred him to PSV's first-team squad with immediate effect in June 2018. On 21 August 2018, Malen made his first appearance in a UEFA Champions League match.

He came on in for Hirving Lozano in the 87th minute on that day in a 2-3 won preliminary round game away at FK BATE Borisov. He headed in the winning goal two minutes later, which was also his first for the PSV main squad. Under Van Bommel, Malen, who was in his first full year in the main squad, appeared in almost all league matches, most of them as a substitute. He scored ten goals.

Following the departure of Luuk de Jong in July 2019, Malen received his number 9, where he had previously played with the number 14. While until then he had mainly been given playing time as a left-winger and right-winger, Van Bommel started the 2019/20 season with him as a new striker. Malen renewed his contract at PSV until mid-2024 in August 2019.

On September 14, 2019, Malen went on to score five times in one match. During a 5-0 league match at home against

, he netted all the goals. He became the third PSV player to achieve this in a single Eredivisie match, following Coen Dillen in 1959 and Bert Theunissen in 1964.

In addition, Malen was the first player to do so at all since Bas Dost in 2011 and the 29th since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956/57. Malen suffered an injury to his left knee on 15 December during a game away at Feyenoord. That injury caused him to lose the rest of the 2019/20 season.

Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, the season was cancelled in the spring of 2020 and there was no champion, promotion or relegation. When the 2020-21 season began, Malen had recovered from his injury, and been appointed vice-captain to Denzel Dumfries, receiving a contract extension until June 2024.

This was followed by the 20-year-old's best season to date from a statistical point of view. The attacker scored 37 goals in 45 competitive games, leaving the likes of Eran Zahavi (21) and Cody Gakpo (14) far behind. In addition, Malen scored several important goals for his team. For example, he scored both goals in the Europa League group stage against Omonia Nicosia or brought his team victories or draws in the league against

, Sparta Rotterdam, Vitesse Arnhem or Feyenoord.

Now stay tuned to this section of Donyell Malen biography as we want to share some info about his

career.

Borussia Dortmund

Malen moved to Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga for the 2021/22 season; having signed a contract running until June 2026. This allowed Dortmund to beat off interest from the likes of West Ham and Liverpool, and also to respond to the transfer of one of their top scorers in recent years, winger Jadon Sancho.

While the league rookie was handed more frequent starting eleven duties up front or on the left-wing, he scored for the first time in September, when he netted the 1-0 final goal in the Champions League group stage match against Sporting Lisbon. Malen scored the only goal again in the return match against the Portuguese team, but this time he and Dortmund lost the game.

In the final match against the Turkish side Beşiktaş, the attacker managed to score for the third time but the 5:0 was not enough for the Dortmund team and they were forced to continue in the Europa League. The Dutchman, together with Erling Haaland, proved to be the team's top scorer in the competition.  Malen scored three goals and made two assists in the league, while Haaland and captain Marco Reus had a clear performance advantage over him in the overall team comparison.

Before the new year, coach Marco Rose said: "We have always been convinced of the boy. We have also said that we are not yet satisfied with his performance in some areas. It was also always clear to us that he needs time to adapt - new team, new league. And he has done that very well in the last few weeks." quite positive about his player.

Dutch national team

Malen was a member of the Dutch U15 national team, played five times for the U16 team and participated in the 2015 European Championship in Bulgaria with the U17 team. He appeared in all three group matches there; the U17 national team was knocked out after the group stage.

The following year, Malen participated in the U17 European Championship in Azerbaijan and made it to the final with the team, where they were defeated by Portugal. Altogether, Malen managed 20 appearances and marked one goal. After that, he played in seven games for the U18 national team and in eleven for the U19s and scored ten goals.

He was called up for the Netherlands U21 national team for the first time on 6 September 2018 and played in a goalless draw at Norwich against

. The Jong Oranje, as the Netherlands U21s are known, failed to qualify for the 2019 European U21 Championship, but instead managed to qualify for the 2021 European Championship finals, where Malen was however not part of the team.

The attacker was called up to the senior national team by coach Ronald Koeman for the European Championship qualifiers against Germany and Estonia at the end of August 2019. He was substituted for Marten de Roon in the 58th minute of the 4-2 win over Germany at Hamburg's Volksparkstadion on 6 September 2019.

Malen was also played in three other matches in the qualifying series and scored once; finishing second in the group behind neighbours Germany to advance to the finals. In the finals, Koeman's successor Frank de Boer fielded the young striker, who had two assists, three times alongside Memphis Depay or Wout Weghorst, and they were knocked out by the Czech Republic in the last 16.

Now stay tuned to this section of Donyell Malen biography as we want to share some info about his playing style.

Style of Play

A fast player with a good nose for goal, he is a leading striker who likes to move all over the front line. According to himself, his inspiration comes from Thierry Henry. The Goal.com website lauded Malen's ability to play both feet, his dribbling skills and his heading ability after the 2020/21 season.

With a dribbling rate of over 60%, Goal.com highlighted some weaknesses in his ability to create chances (second to last in the league in this category) and his average number of actions on the ball per game, which were only slightly lower than those of six-time

top scorer Robert Lewandowski, for example.

Reception

Donyell Malen is considered to be one of the most talented Dutch strikers at the moment, with a very bright future in front of him. Many believe that Malen has got what it takes to become of the legendary strikers in the history of Dutch football.

Donyell Malen outside Football

As a young footballer still at the very beginning of his football career, Donyell Malen is fully focused on developing his career and thus he has not much time for anything other than football. When he is free, the young footballer spends time with his family, sharing some of their moments on his Instagram account.

Donyell Malen Personal Life

In this section of Donyell Malen biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Donyell Malen life story

and

Donyell Malen religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

Malen, who is the son of a Surinamese father and a Dutch mother, was born in Wieringen in the province of Noord-Holland. His parents, who were a taxi driver and a professional footballer, decided to separate when their son was two years old and the young Donyell then moved with his mother to the nearby village of Westerland. Because of his mother's work commitments, his parents would often look after the boy and also taught him the sport of football in their garden at home.

Donyell has been married to his wife Delisha Chanayla Malen for a few years now and the couple has a daughter together.

Philanthropy

Donyell Malen is one of those footballers who like to be involved in charity projects. While he was playing for the PSV Eindhoven in the

, for example, he paid a visit to the PSV amputee football team and spent some time with the players.

Legal Issues

At the time of writing this article, there are no reports of any legal issues or disputes regarding Donyell Malen in either English or Dutch press.

Donyell Malen Career Statistics

In this section of Donyell Malen biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

Since the start of his professional career with the Jong PSV in the Eerste Divisie of Netherlands up to now that he is playing for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Donyell Malen has played a total of 161 matches in all competitions, scoring 74 goals.

International

On the international front, since 2019, Donyell Malen has played a total of 17 matches for the Netherlands national team, scoring four goals in doing so. He has played the majority of his international caps in 2012, as he was part of the Dutch national team in Euro 2020. Now stay tuned to this section of Donyell Malen biography as we want to share some info about the titles and honours that he has won during his career.

Donyell Malen Honors

During his time as a player, Donyell Malen has so far won the 2017-18 Eredivisie title with PSV Eindhoven. He has also won the 2017-18 Jupiler League Bronze Bull award.

Read More:

Follow

 for