Donyell Malen

Sourced facts, dated and on the record. Squad membership, and his club when a source names one. Nothing invented; we don’t make players up.

At a glance

age
26
sourced with the squad
position
Midfield
Netherlands
our board
#62
of 1424 rated players
folded so far
3130′
53 appearances
npxG per 90
0.64
100th percentile of peers

Sourced

squad: Netherlands · Midfieldfootball-data.org · 2026-06-29

Sourced context, nothing more. It never touches a call.

Our rating · the working

the board →

2010 ±45

his quality rating: club, age and measured output. The board orders by this plus his World Cup form, less a discount for how much we can measure him.

How the number is builtopenclose

2046 full roster Elo (+36 from national-team results)

the ± is how settled the number is, more minutes, tighter band

Tier 2, lineups + results, how rich the evidence is, not just how much

potential ~2054 ±45 a projection, not a measurement: room left on the midfield age curve

Where he starts (his team’s strength, we refuse to invent what we haven’t measured) plus two fixed nudges make the quality rating above; the last line is what national-team results have added since, taking it to his full roster Elo.

starts at Netherlands's strengththe fair club-over-national anchor, every player's starting point: 1865
age curve at 26 (midfields' curve)young-side discount halved, his measured production overrides the average-youngster prior: -6
attacking output in club football, our xG modelhis percentile among minutes-qualified peers, from club seasons: +151
quality rating · club, age + measured output: 2010
form: national-team results, 53 appearances3130 minutes, weighted by margin, surprise and his match stats, but shared across the XI: +36
full roster Elo · with results: 2046

Where the +151 skill term comes from

Not a reputation, a measurement. We score every shot in the data ourselves and rank him among minutes-qualified peers; a fixed arithmetic turns that rank into points.

measured: 0.64 npxG per 90
his rank: 100th percentile of qualified peers
scored from: recent club seasons, every shot scored by our own xG model
the arithmetic: 46 pts/σ × z(100.0th) = 46 × 3.29 = +151

A forward-only shadow signal, as of 2026-06-25. The skill term comes from our own xG models over the open archive; the rest is earned, recorded per appearance, auditable, never back-filled. It never moves a live call.

The notebook

The lines a beat writer keeps, except every one of ours is read off the ledger above, auditable to the night. Nothing invented.

standing
#62 of 1424 on our board, top 10% of everyone we rate.
vs his seed
The folded nights have added +36 to the number he seeded with, he has outplayed his own prior.

What he’d cost · our estimate

We don’t price him yet. Our fee model leans on the level he plays at, and no trusted source has given us his club’s strength. We’d rather show nothing than a number we don’t trust.

The fee record · sourced

The market’s last public word: €30m (2021-07). The gap is evidence, many of them, together, recalibrate our model; no single one rewrites him.

2026-01-15Aston Villa → AS Romaloan
2025-01-14Borussia Dortmund → Aston Villaundisclosed
2021-07-27PSV Eindhoven → Borussia Dortmund€30m
2017-08-31Arsenal → PSV Eindhovenundisclosed

Reported moves, dated and attributed (api-football.com), news facts, not a valuation site’s estimates. It never touches a call.

In our coverage · Netherlands’s record

v MoroccoSealed
at Tunisia1–3Called it
v Sweden5–1Called it
v Japan2–2Missed it

The newsroom’s calls on Netherlands. Team-level, never dressed up as a player stat.