Six PSV players went before Donyell Malen

Six PSV players went before Donyell Malen
4 min

Five goals in one game. Donyell Malen is the third PSV player to accomplish that in professional football. In the club's history, six men preceded him including club icons Berend Scholtens and Coen Dillen.

Chris Sijen 1916
Long before the advent of professional football, when the ball, the fields and the players were proverbially still black and white, Chris Sijen was the very first to score five goals on behalf of PSV in a single match. Dutch football was still in its infancy until Sijen, a glassblower by profession, scored five goals in the 9-2 win against Tegelen on October 22, 1916.

Piet Ramakers 1923 and 1926
The "miracle of Sijen" is matched after seven years by Piet Ramakers. In the away match against NOAD, Ramakers gives the decisive touch to the ball five times in a match that is eventually won 1-6. Three years after that, Ramakers does the trick again, this time against Zaltbommel (8-1). In five seasons the striker played 93 matches on behalf of PSV and scored 65 goals. Ramakers is also the first PSV player to be called up for a representative team of the Dutch Football Association. In 1924 he was selected for the Olympic team.

Ad van Eerd 1930
On Nov. 30, 1930, PSV owes it to Ad van Eerd to win against De Valk. With five goals, he was the absolute star in a first division match that ended 6-3. A year earlier, Van Eerd became national champion with PSV. He is considered a lively striker, a classic battering ram actually, and makes it to captain of the pre-war PSV. In 88 matches he hit the net 69 times.

Berend Scholtens 1940
Almost a decade later, Berend Scholtens succeeds Van Eerd. He scored half of the goals PSV scored against Roermond (10-0) on November 17, 1940. Although not known to everyone, Scholtens is considered a primal PSV player. The Member of Merit played in PSV's red and white from 1937 to 1955 and visited his club until his death. On September 13, 1953, the native of Groningen played his five hundredth (!) match. The first PSV player to reach that number.

Coen Dillen 1955 and 1959
Much better known icon is Coen Dillen. 'The Cannon' cast in bronze on the east side at Philips Stadium. Dillen is a man of few words. A native of Eindhoven and of course known for the 43 goals he scored in one season. A record that will most likely never be broken again. In 1955 he makes his first appearance by taking on the entire PSV production against the Volewijckers (5-2). Four years later, in 1959, he does so again. Against DWS/A (also 5-2) he is the first PSV player to score five goals in professional football.

Bert Theunissen 1964
Bert Theunissen is the second PSV player to pull the trigger five times in the Eredivisie. This time Sittardia is PSV's opponent and again it becomes 5-2. Unlike Dillen, Theunissen does not grow into a club icon. A few weeks after his five-hit performance, he leaves for Young Boys, where he says he could earn "ten times as much. Theunissen also continued to score in Switzerland, but he would never have it as good as he did at PSV. 'Those fifteen months were the best in my football career.'

Donyell Malen 2019
55 years Theunissen has had to wait for a successor. Fifty-five. What is unique about Donyell Malen's achievement is that his name is the only one on the match sheet. "In youth I did it once, in the D2 or so," the leading player himself looked back on Saturday. "Back then I made more than five, but of course this is even better. The game ball gets a nice place."