The 100 Best Female Footballers In The World

The 100 Best Female Footballers In The World is an annual global ranking of the best female footballers. The list was started by The Offside Rule podcast in 2016. Since 2018 it has also been published in association with the British newspaper The Guardian who have published the male equivalent since its inception in 2012.

The list is voted for by a panel of experts ranging from players and coaches to journalists and broadcasters from around the world. Judges are sent a longlist of 450 footballers and asked to rank their top 40 who are given a corresponding points value. The total across all judges determines the finish position. In 2019, the panel consisted of 93 judges from 44 countries across five continents including newly-appointed USWNT and reigning NWSL champion head coach Vlatko Andonovski, and FIFA Female Player of the Century and legendary China international Sun Wen.^[1]

Winners[]

Number of wins in brackets.


Year	Player	Club(s)
2016^[2]	Ada Hegerberg	Lyon
2017^[3]	Lieke Martens	Rosengård / Barcelona
2018^[4]	Pernille Harder	Wolfsburg
2019^[5]	Sam Kerr	Perth Glory / Chicago Red Stars
2020^[6]	Pernille Harder (2)	Wolfsburg / Chelsea
2021^[7]	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona

Top 10[]

As of 2021, 27 individual players have been included in the "Top 10" of the Top 100 list.

Rank	Player	Years	Peak	Club(s)	Apps
1	Lucy Bronze	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020	2	Manchester City, Lyon	5
	Pernille Harder	2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021	1	Wolfsburg, Chelsea
	Sam Kerr	2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021	1	Perth Glory, Sky Blue FC, Chicago Red Stars, Chelsea
	Wendie Renard	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020	4	Lyon
5	Ada Hegerberg	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019	1	Lyon	4
5	Vivianne Miedema	2017, 2019, 2020, 2021	2	Arsenal	4
7	Amandine Henry	2018, 2019, 2020	5	Lyon	3
	Dzsenifer Marozsán	2016, 2017, 2020	5	Frankfurt, Lyon
	Lieke Martens	2017, 2018, 2021	1	Rosengård, Barcelona
10	Caroline Graham Hansen	2020, 2021	4	Barcelona	2
	Eugénie Le Sommer	2018, 2019	5	Lyon
	Marta	2016, 2017	2	Rosengård, Orlando Pride
	Alex Morgan	2017, 2018	7	Lyon, Orlando Pride
	Megan Rapinoe	2018, 2019	3	Seattle Reign
15	Melanie Behringer	2016	3	Bayern Munich	1
	Aitana Bonmatí	2021	10	Barcelona
	Delphine Cascarino	2020	10	Lyon
	Julie Ertz	2020	9	Chicago Red Stars
	Tobin Heath	2016	9	Portland Thorns
	Jennifer Hermoso	2021	6	Barcelona
	Fran Kirby	2021	7	Chelsea
	Rose Lavelle	2019	7	Washington Spirit
	Kim Little	2016	4	Arsenal
	Carli Lloyd	2016	7	Houston Dash
	Irene Paredes	2021	8	PSG, Barcelona
	Alexia Putellas	2021	1	Barcelona
	Christine Sinclair	2016	6	Portland Thorns

Overall[]

By nationality[]

As of the 2021 edition, players from 35 nations have made up the Top 100. The United States has been the most represented nation in total (93) with a record 19 individuals in 2019. In 2020, Germany became the first nation other than the United States to be the most represented. Zambia is the most recent nation to debut following Barbra Banda's inclusion in 2021.

Nationality is defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Rank	Nation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	Total
1	United States	16	18	16	19	9	15	93
2	England	14	11	11	10	10	10	66
3	France	12	6	9	10	10	12	59
4	Germany	10	7	11	7	13	10	58
5	Sweden	8	2	5	9	8	9	41
6	Netherlands	4	9	6	6	8	4	37
7	Spain	3	4	4	7	8	10	36
8	Australia	6	8	5	2	3	2	26
9	Brazil	3	5	4	5	4	2	23
10	Norway	3	4	4	5	4	1	21
11	Canada	3	4	2	2	3	6	20
12	Japan	4	3	4	4	2	2	19
13	Denmark	2	4	3	1	2	1	13
14	Scotland	3	0	1	2	3	2	11
15	Switzerland	1	2	3	0	1	1	8
16	South Korea	1	1	1	1	1	1	6
17	Iceland	1	1	1	1	1	0	5
	Italy	0	0	0	1	2	2
	Malawi	1	1	1	1	1	0
	Nigeria	0	1	1	1	1	1
	Poland	0	0	1	1	1	2
22	Austria	0	3	0	0	0	1	4
	Chile	0	0	1	1	1	1
	Portugal	1	1	1	1	0	0
	Venezuela	1	1	1	0	0	1
	Wales	1	1	1	0	0	1
27	Belgium	1	1	1	0	0	0	3
	Ireland	0	0	0	1	1	1
	Jamaica	0	0	0	1	1	1
30	China	1	0	1	0	0	0	2
	Costa Rica	0	2	0	0	0	0
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1	0	0
33	Finland	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
	Serbia	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Zambia	0	0	0	0	0	1

Nationalities by continent[]

Continent refers to the corresponding continental confederation of the player's nationality.

Rank	Confederation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	Total
1	Europe	64	56	62	62	74	67	385
2	North America	19	24	18	22	13	22	118
3	Asia	12	12	11	7	6	5	53
4	South America	4	6	6	6	5	4	31
5	Africa	1	2	2	2	2	2	11
6	Oceania	0	0	1	1	0	0	2

By club[]

As of the 2021 edition, players playing for 76 different clubs have been selected. French club Lyon has had the most players in the Top 100 every year. Clubs are counted when a player in the Top 100 played for that team in the same calendar year they were selected. Players may have played for multiple clubs per year.

Rank	Club	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	Total
1	Lyon	15	12	14	12	12	15	80
2	Wolfsburg	8	7	11	11	10	4	51
3	Chelsea	7	7	5	8	11	9	47
3	PSG	7	7	5	7	9	12	47
5	Barcelona	3	5	4	8	10	14	44
6	Arsenal	5	5	5	6	9	11	41
7	Manchester City	8	7	5	4	7	8	39
8	Bayern Munich	6	4	4	4	6	8	32
9	North Carolina Courage	0	4	8	8	5	2	27
10	Portland Thorns	5	7	4	4	2	4	26
11	OL Reign	4	4	5	1	0	5	19
12	Chicago Red Stars	2	2	4	5	2	2	17
12	Orlando Pride	4	6	4	2	0	1	17
14	Rosengård	4	2	3	1	3	2	15
15	Houston Dash	5	2	1	1	3	1	13
16	Montpellier	3	3	2	3	1	0	12
17	Melbourne City	4	1	4	1	1	0	11
18	Eintracht Frankfurt	4	3	1	1	1	0	10
	Linköpings	3	2	1	3	1	0
	Washington Spirit	2	1	1	3	1	2
21	Atlético Madrid	0	1	1	3	2	2	9
22	Turbine Potsdam	3	3	2	0	0	0	8
23	Real Madrid	0	0	0	2	2	3	7
24	Juventus	0	0	0	1	2	3	6
	NJ/NY Gotham FC	0	3	0	1	0	2
	Utah Royals	0	0	2	4	0	0
27	Bordeaux	0	0	0	1	2	2	5
27	LSK Kvinner	2	0	1	2	0	0	5
29	Canberra United	1	1	0	2	0	0	4
	Essen	0	0	2	1	1	0
	Freiburg	0	1	1	1	1	0
	Sydney FC	1	2	1	0	0	0
	Vålerenga	0	1	1	1	1	0
34	Brisbane Roar	0	1	1	1	0	0	3
	Dalian	1	1	1	0	0	0
	FSU Seminoles	1	1	1	0	0	0
	BK Häcken	0	0	0	0	2	1
	Jiangsu Suning	0	0	1	1	1	0
	Manchester United	0	0	0	1	1	1
	Perth Glory	0	1	1	1	0	0
	UCLA Bruins	1	1	0	1	0	0
	Western New York Flash	3	0	0	0	0	0
	Western Sydney Wanderers	0	0	0	2	1	0
44	Birmingham City	0	0	1	1	0	0	2
	Changchun Zhuoyue	0	1	1	0	0	0
	FC Kansas City	1	1	0	0	0	0
	FC Twente	0	2	0	0	0	0
	Hoffenheim	0	1	0	0	0	1
	INAC Kobe	0	0	1	1	0	0
	Kvarnsvedens	1	1	0	0	0	0
	SC Sand	0	2	0	0	0	0
	Vegalta Sendai	0	2	0	0	0	0
53	AC Nagano	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
	Achilles '29	0	1	0	0	0	0
	Aston Villa	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Boston Breakers	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Brighton & Hove Albion	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Brøndby	0	1	0	0	0	0
	Everton	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Hammarby	0	0	1	0	0	0
	JEF United	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Juvisy	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Levante	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Liverpool	0	1	0	0	0	0
	Newcastle Jets	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Okayama Yunogo Belle	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Örebro	1	0	0	0	0	0
	PSV Eindhoven	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Reading	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Santos	0	0	0	0	1	0
		0	0	0	1	0	0
		0	0	0	0	0	1
	Urawa Red Diamonds	0	0	0	1	0	0
	West Ham United	0	0	0	0	1	0
	West Virginia Mountaineers	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Wuhan	0	0	1	0	0	0

Clubs by nation[]

Rank	Nation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	Total
1	United States	30	32	30	30	13	19	154
2	France	26	22	21	23	24	29	145
3	England	20	20	16	20	31	31	138
4	Germany	21	21	21	18	19	13	113
5	Spain	3	6	5	13	14	20	61
6	Sweden	9	5	5	4	6	3	32
7	Australia	6	6	8	7	2	0	29
8	China	1	2	4	1	1	1	10
9	Norway	2	1	2	3	1	0	9
10	Japan	2	3	1	2	0	0	8
11	Italy	0	0	0	1	2	3	6
12	Netherlands	0	3	0	0	1	0	4
13	Brazil	0	0	0	1	1	0	2
14	Denmark	0	1	0	0	0	0	1

References[]

^ Laverty, Rich (2 December 2019). "How the Guardian ranked the 100 best female footballers in the world 2019". The Guardian.
^ "Top 100 Women's Footballers of 2016: 30-21". The Offside Rule. 21 December 2016.
^ "The Top 100 Women's Footballers of 2017 – Results". The Offside Rule. 11 December 2017.
^ Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2018". The Guardian.
^ Laverty, Rich; Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2019". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
^ Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2020". The Guardian.
^ Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2021". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-12-10.

[1] Laverty, Rich (2 December 2019). "How the Guardian ranked the 100 best female footballers in the world 2019". The Guardian.

[2] "Top 100 Women's Footballers of 2016: 30-21". The Offside Rule. 21 December 2016.

[3] "The Top 100 Women's Footballers of 2017 – Results". The Offside Rule. 11 December 2017.

[4] Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2018". The Guardian.

[5] Laverty, Rich; Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2019". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-12-06.

[6] Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2020". The Guardian.

[7] Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2021". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-12-10.

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