Gabriëlla Maria "Manon" Melis (; born 31 August 1986) is a Dutch manager of women's football development at Feyenoord and a former professional footballer who played as a forward. She spent most of her professional career playing in the Swedish league Damallsvenskan, which she won three times with her club LdB FC Malmö, in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Melis also won the Swedish Supercup with Malmö in 2011, and was briefly with the Swedish teams Linköping and Göteborg. She was the Damallsvenskan top scorer three times, in 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2016, she moved to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the US, playing for Seattle Reign for one season, before retiring from professional football.
At age 17, Melis made her debut for the Netherlands national team in 2004. Her scoring helped the Dutch qualify for their first major tournament, the UEFA Women's Euro 2009, where they reached the semi-finals. In the tournament, she scored a crucial goal in the final group game against Denmark to send her team into the knockout stage. At Euro 2013 in Sweden and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada, she played all seven combined matches for her country but did not score. When she retired from playing international football in 2016, she had earned 136 caps and scored 59 goals. She was the all-time top goal scorer for the Netherlands national team from 2010 to 2019.
Melis has been the manager of women's football development at Feyenoord since 2017 with the aim to create a first team that competes in the Dutch Eredivisie and is supported by youth and reserve teams. She achieved this goal when Feyenoord Women fielded a team in the Eredivisie for the first time in the 2021–22 season. Her father is former Feyenoord player Harry Melis.
Early life Gabriëlla Maria Melis was born on 31 August 1986 in Rotterdam. Her father is Harry Melis, a former footballer who played as a winger in the Dutch Eredivisie for Feyenoord, ADO Den Haag, and DS'79. At a young age, she expressed her desire to follow in his example. She started playing organised football in 1993 for RVVH in Ridderkerk, where she initially played in the girls' team. The Royal Dutch Football Association soon suggested that Melis play with and against boys, a scheme the association had introduced in 1986. She enjoyed the more challenging environment up to the highest youth teams. Girls playing football was still somewhat unusual at the time and she later said that her direct opponents were often ridiculed by their teammates for having to compete against a girl. Melis later said that most of her teammates on the senior national team had played on boys' teams in their youth.
During her childhood, Melis appeared as a ball girl during a national team match at the Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel. She supported Feyenoord, one of her father's clubs, from an early age and has said that Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Henrik Larsson were her favourite players during her youth.
Club career 2004–2006: RVVH After turning 18 in 2004, Melis moved to the senior level. She continued to play for RVVH but was no longer allowed to play on mixed teams and had to switch to the club's women's team. She was joined by Leonne Stentler, who had also played for RVVH's mixed youth teams. Stentler, who went on to earn 16 caps for the Dutch national team, later said that the drop in level had negatively affected their motivation. Other internationals at the club were Jeanine van Dalen and Sandra Muller. For two seasons she played in the Hoofdklasse, the Netherlands' highest amateur league of women's football. There was no professional league in the Netherlands at the time. The women had to arrange their own travel to away games; unlike for the men, the club did not organise transport for them. RVVH did not win the league during Melis's tenure.
2006–2007: Be Quick '28 In 2006, Melis received an offer to play in the German Frauen-Bundesliga, for Duisburg, but declined. She wished to focus fully on football, but this offer meant that she would also have to find other work, which seemed daunting because she was unable to speak German fluently. She decided to stay in the highest Dutch league and accept an offer from Be Quick '28 in Zwolle, because of their more intensive training regime. She joined Sylvia Smit, with whom she had played on the national team, in attack. Melis only played for Be Quick for a few months.
2007–2011: LdB FC Malmö In January 2007, at age 20, Melis moved abroad to play professionally for LdB FC Malmö in the Swedish Damallsvenskan. She later recalled that the women's game was far more advanced in Sweden than in the Netherlands, both in terms of professionalism, exemplified by the frequency and intensity of training, and media coverage. Malmö had finished in fourth place in the twelve-team league the previous season and signed her to challenge defending champions Umeå IK. Among the other players on the team were Ásthildur Helgadóttir, an Iceland international, and Caroline Jönsson, Sweden's goalkeeper. In Melis's first home game, against Örebro in front of 1,013 spectators, she scored twice. In her first season she scored ten goals, and finished as the club's top scorer, ahead of Helgadóttir, but her tally was surpassed by Lotta Schelin of Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC who scored 26. Malmö finished third as Umeå retained the championship.
In her second season at Malmö, Melis scored the first equalising goal in a 2–2 draw with Umeå, who ended up winning the league again, their fourth consecutive title. Malmö finished the season third, but having closed the gap with Umeå they had in Melis's first season. Melis, playing in the number 14 jersey, was the league's joint-top-scorer that season with Umeå's Marta, each of them scoring 23 times, although 6 of Marta's goals were scored on the last day of the season in an 11–1 win over already-relegated Bälinge. In November 2008, Melis was nominated for the Forward of the Year award at the annual Swedish Football Gala but she lost to Marta.
In the 2009 season Melis played 20 games, scoring 10 goals. She shared the club's top scorer spot with Frida Nordin. Early in the season Malmö scored seven goals three games in a row, with Melis scoring a hat-trick in one of them, against Piteå. They finished the season in fourth place, as Linköping took the title.
In Melis's fourth season at Malmö the club won the league, thus securing a place in the 2011–12 UEFA Women's Champions League. She surpassed her 2008-goal tally of 23 by scoring 25 goals in 22 games and was the 2010 Damallsvenskan top scorer. Malmö finished 11 points ahead of the second-place team Göteborg. Melis scored hat-tricks in two matches: in the 5–3 victory over Göteborg early in the season, and in the 4–0 away win over Umeå in June. She also scored the opening goal in a 2–1 win over defending champions Linköping. In the final game of the season Melis scored twice in a 5–0 victory over Umeå. In November 2010, Melis won the awards for Forward of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the Damallsvenskan. In their description of the history of Damallsvenskan, the Swedish Football Association wrote that the 2010 season saw some stars leaving the league and, consequently, audience numbers declined, prompting a decrease in sponsor funds needed to attract new stars.
In her first Supercup, held just prior to the start of the 2011 Damallsvenskan season between league champions Malmö and cup winners Örebro, Melis scored the winning goal in extra time. It was a simple tap-in goal after a Sarah Storck shot rebounded off the crossbar. This Supercup win was followed by Melis being part of Malmö successfully defending their title. With three games to play Melis scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory over Kristianstad, keeping Malmö close to league leaders Tyresö and rivals Göteborg and Umeå. Tyresö lost their last two games, whereas Malmö won both, staying ahead of Göteborg by one point. In the domestic cup, Malmö again lost in the quarter-finals. Despite Melis's opening goal putting Malmö in the lead before half-time, Linköping came from behind to win 2–1. Melis finished the season as Damallsvenskan's top scorer, with 16 goals from 21 games, sharing the honour with Kristianstad's Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir. She has been Malmö's top scorer for five straight seasons. Melis played her first ever Champions League game on 29 September 2011 in Italy against Tavagnacco, losing 2–1 in the first leg of a two-legged tie. In the return game she scored twice to help secure a 5–0 win and progress to the next round, where they faced SV Neulengbach from Austria. Melis scored once in the away game, helping her club to a 3–1 win. The return match, on 10 November 2011, was her last game with the club. Melis scored the only goal of the match. As a result, Malmö progressed to the quarter-finals, scheduled for March 2012 after Melis left the team.
2011–2012: Sky Blue FC In November 2011, Melis announced she was moving from Malmö to Sky Blue FC, based in Harrison, New Jersey, to play in the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league. Sky Blue FC head coach Jim Gabarra said that because the WPS defences were quick and physical he needed a fast forward player like Melis. Daphne Koster, with whom Melis played for the Dutch national team, played for Sky Blue the year before. Before Melis could start her first game for Sky Blue, the WPS suspended operations in January 2012 because of a legal dispute with an ousted owner. This left many players, including Melis, in need of a new club.
2012: Linköpings FC In February 2012, Melis returned to the Damallsvenskan and signed with Linköping, ahead of the 2012 season starting in April. Coach Jörgen Petersson called her "a strong addition to an already very interesting player squad". Her colleague in attack was the Australian Lisa De Vanna. Reflecting on her years of experience in the Swedish league Melis said, "I think the league is more equal and harder than previous years. There are so many internationals and good players in the league." She was assigned the number 9 jersey. The club did not start the season well, winning two of the first eight games, but she scored all four of her side's goals in their 4–1 victory over Piteå. She also scored four times in Linköping's 11–0 defeat of Djurgården. In June she faced her old club Malmö at the Malmö IP stadium, where she scored the game's opening goal in a 2–1 defeat. In August, she scored once in the home match against Malmö, who won 5–3, with their German international Anja Mittag scoring a hat-trick. Linköping finished third in the league, 16 points behind title-winners Tyresö. Melis scored 16 goals in 21 games, finishing third on the top scorers list behind Mittag and Göteborg's Christen Press.
2013: LdB FC Malmö Melis agreed to return to Malmö in December 2012 for the 2013 Damallsvenskan season, regaining her number 14 jersey and joining Mittag in attack. In the home game against her former club, Linköping, Melis scored the second goal of a 4–0 victory, on an assist from Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir. The away match at defending champions Tyresö was a turning point for the club's season. Although Malmö were behind 2–1, and had a player sent off with about 20 minutes to go, they achieved a 3–2 win. In her last home game at the Malmö IP stadium, against old rivals Umeå, Melis scored the opening goal in front of more than 2,500 spectators; Malmö won 2–0. Melis collected her third Damallsvenskan winner's medal, as her team finished seven points ahead of second-placed Tyresö. She scored 11 goals in 21 league matches, two goals fewer than her teammate Mittag and twelve fewer than the league's top scorer, Press.
2014–2015: Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC