Tessa Wullaert

Tessa Wullaert (born 19 March 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Belgium national team, where she has amassed the second-highest number of caps for her country ever. She is her country's highest goalscorer of all time in women's international football with 93 goals, and also holds the absolute goalscoring national record having scored more than Romelu Lukaku. For the 2012–13 season, when the BeNe League, a new joint league between Belgium and the Netherlands, was created, she moved to RSC Anderlecht, with which she won the Belgian Cup. She left after one year and signed for Standard Liège, scoring 16 league goals during the 2013–14 season and winning the Belgian Cup again. In 2014–15, her second season playing for Standard, she won the BeNe League top scorer award with 18 goals, helping the club win the title.

Wolfsburg In May 2015, Wullaert moved to VfL Wolfsburg. She spent three seasons with the club, winning two Bundesliga and three DFB-Pokal titles. She also appeared in two Champions League finals, both as a substitute.

Manchester City In June 2018, Wullaert signed for English FA WSL club Manchester City. In her first season with the club, Wullaert won the FA Cup and League Cup double, finishing runner-up in the league. Following two seasons with the club, Wullaert announced she had declined a new contract and would be leaving.

Anderlecht In 2020, Wullaert moved back to Belgium to be closer to her family and boyfriend. She signed a contract with Anderlecht that made her the only fully professional female footballer in Belgium at the time. She scored more than 30 goals in each of her two seasons with Anderlecht, leading the Women's Super League in scoring and helping Anderlecht win two league titles and the Belgian Cup in 2022.

Fortuna Sittard After two years in her native Belgium, Wullaert agreed terms with newcomers to the Dutch Eredivisie Fortuna Sittard, situated just across the border from Belgium. In March 2024, she scored a league record of 7 goals in an 8–0 win over Telstar. With 26 goals, Wullaert became top scorer of the 2023–24 Eredivisie. She also won the league's .

Inter Milan Women On 7 June 2024, it was announced that Wullaert would join the Inter Milan women's team.

International career

Wullaert represented Belgium at the 2011 UEFA Women's U-19 Championship and in the same year made her debut for the senior national team. Within four years she achieved the record for highest number of international goals by a Belgian female football player, going level up with team captain Aline Zeler in October 2015, overtaking her in March 2016.

Wullaert played in Belgium's only two appearances at the Women's European Championships, their group stage exit at Euro 2017 where she netted in a 2–1 loss to the Netherlands, and the Red Flames' subsequent run to quarter-finals at Euro 2022, where she did not score but did help Belgium out of their group for the first time ever.

In their second appearance at the continental finals, the Red Flames finished second in Group D behind group favourites France, against whom they conceded a narrow defeat (1–2), but ahead of Iceland with a 1–1 draw and Italy, who they edged out 1–0. Belgium lost 1–0 to Sweden in the quarter-finals.

At the start of 2022, Wullaert was named in the Belgium squad for the Pinatar Cup friendly tournament in Spain but had to pull out through injury. Belgium went on to win the tournament for the first time, beating Russia on penalties after a 0–0 draw.

Wullaert's two goals against Greece in the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying play-off semi-final second leg on 29 October 2024 saw her reach 85 goals for her country, matching Romelu Lukaku's men's record to become the joint-highlest goalscorer ever for any Belgiam senior national football team.

This record came in her 137th appearance for the Red Flames, with only Janice Cayman amassing more caps (153).

Wullaert took custody of the Belgian outscoring senior reconrd again when she netted her 86th goal for the Red Flames in their 2–0 Euro 2025 play-off final first-leg win away to Ukraine on 29 November 2024, scoring the clincher in the second-leg for a 2–1 win on the night, qualifying 4–1 on aggregate.

On 11 June 2025, Wullaert was called up to the Belgium squad for the UEFA Women's Euro 2025.

On 7 March 2026, Wullaert scored her 100th international goals against Israel in 5–0 victory at 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification.

Among Wullaert's record national haul of 105 goals, Wullaert has scored nine hat-tricks in her international career, including a five-goal haul in a 19–0 Women's World Cup qualifier against Armenia in 2021 and four against Greece in another qualifier in 2015.

Career statistics

Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Wullaert goal.

Honours Zulte Waregem Belgian Women's Second Division: 2008–09

Anderlecht Belgian Women's Super League: 2021, 2022 Belgian Women's Cup: 2013, 2022

Standard Liège BeNe League: 2014–15 Belgian Women's Cup: 2014

VfL Wolfsburg DFB-Pokal: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18 Bundesliga: 2016–17, 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League runner-up: 2015–16, 2017–18

Manchester City FA Women's League Cup: 2018–19 FA Cup: 2018–19 Inter Milan Serie A runner-up: 2025–26

Belgium Pinatar Cup: 2022

Individual BeNe League topscorer: 2014–15 BeNe League player of the season: 2014–15 The Sparkle: 2015 Belgian Golden Shoe: 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024, 2025 Super League topscorer: 2020–21, 2021–22 Belgian Professional Footballer of the Year: 2021–22 Record of most goals in 1 Eredivisie-game (7): 2024 Eredivisie top scorer: 2023–24 Belgium women's record goalscorer: 75 goals Serie A topscorer: 2025–26 Most assists in the Serie A: 2025–26