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
2022[8]	Alexia Putellas (2)	Barcelona
2023[9]	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona
2024[10]	Aitana Bonmatí (2)	Barcelona

Top 10

As of 2024, 42 individual players have been included in the "top 10" of the Top 100 list.

Rank	Player	Years	Peak	Club(s)	Apps
1	Sam Kerr	2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023	1	Perth Glory, Sky Blue FC, Chicago Red Stars, Chelsea	7
2	Lucy Bronze	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022	2	Manchester City, Lyon, Barcelona	6
3	Caroline Graham Hansen	2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024	2	Barcelona	5
	Pernille Harder	2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021	1	Wolfsburg, Chelsea
	Vivianne Miedema	2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022	2	Arsenal
	Wendie Renard	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020	4	Lyon
7	Aitana Bonmatí	2021, 2022, 2023, 2024	1	Barcelona	4
	Ada Hegerberg	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019	1	Lyon
9	Amandine Henry	2018, 2019, 2020	5	Lyon	3
	Dzsenifer Marozsán	2016, 2017, 2020	5	Frankfurt, Lyon
	Lieke Martens	2017, 2018, 2021	1	Rosengård, Barcelona
12	Eugénie Le Sommer	2018, 2019	5	Lyon	2
	Marta	2016, 2017	2	Rosengård, Orlando Pride
	Alex Morgan	2017, 2018	7	Lyon, Orlando Pride
	Salma Paralluelo	2023, 2024	3	Barcelona
	Alexandra Popp	2022, 2023	6	Wolfsburg
	Alexia Putellas	2021, 2022	1	Barcelona
	Megan Rapinoe	2018, 2019	3	Seattle Reign
	Keira Walsh	2022, 2023	4	Manchester City, Barcelona
20	Barbra Banda	2024	7	Orlando Pride	1
	Melanie Behringer	2016	3	Bayern Munich
	Delphine Cascarino	2020	10	Lyon
	Mary Earps	2023	9	Manchester United
	Julie Ertz	2020	9	Chicago Red Stars
	Naomi Girma	2024	10	San Diego Wave
	Tobin Heath	2016	9	Portland Thorns
	Jennifer Hermoso	2021	6	Barcelona
	Lindsey Horan	2024	6	Lyon
	Lauren James	2023	10	Chelsea
	Fran Kirby	2021	7	Chelsea
	Rose Lavelle	2019	7	Washington Spirit
	Mapi León	2023	8	Barcelona
	Kim Little	2016	4	Arsenal
	Carli Lloyd	2016	7	Houston Dash
	Beth Mead	2022	2	Arsenal
	Lena Oberdorf	2022	5	Wolfsburg
	Irene Paredes	2021	8	PSG, Barcelona
	Trinity Rodman	2024	5	Washington Spirit
	Fridolina Rolfö	2023	5	Barcelona
	Khadija Shaw	2024	4	Manchester City
	Christine Sinclair	2016	6	Portland Thorns
	Sophia Smith	2024	3	Portland Thorns
	Mallory Swanson	2024	9	Chicago Red Stars

Overall

By nationality

As of the 2024 edition, players from 39 nations have made up the Top 100. The United States has been the most represented nation in total (123) with a record 19 individuals in 2019. In 2020, Germany became the first nation other than the United States to be the most represented. Spain became the third nation to have the most selections with 15 in 2023, retaining top spot the following year. Mexico is the most recent nation to debut following the inclusion of Lizbeth Ovalle in 2024.

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

Rank	Nation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Total
1	United States	16	18	16	19	9	15	11	7	12	123
2	England	14	11	11	10	10	10	13	12	14	105
3	Germany	10	7	11	7	13	10	14	5	10	87
4	France	12	6	9	10	10	12	10	6	7	82
5	Spain	3	4	4	7	8	10	10	15	15	76
6	Sweden	8	2	5	9	8	9	4	6	2	53
7	Netherlands	4	9	6	6	8	4	5	8	2	52
8	Australia	6	8	5	2	3	2	3	8	3	40
9	Brazil	3	5	4	5	4	2	4	3	5	35
10	Norway	3	4	4	5	4	1	3	3	5	32
11	Japan	4	3	4	4	2	2	3	5	4	31
12	Canada	3	4	2	2	3	6	5	3	1	29
13	Scotland	3	0	1	2	3	2	3	2	3	19
14	Denmark	2	4	3	1	2	1	1	1	1	16
15	Switzerland	1	2	3	0	1	1	1	1	1	11
16	Nigeria	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	9
17	Italy	0	0	0	1	2	2	1	1	1	8
	Malawi	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	2
	Poland	0	0	1	1	1	2	1	1	1
20	Chile	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	7
	Iceland	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	1
	South Korea	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	0
23	Jamaica	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	6
24	Austria	0	3	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	5
	Colombia	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2
	Ireland	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	1	1
	Wales	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
28	Portugal	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	4
	Venezuela	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Zambia	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	2
31	Belgium	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
	Haiti	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
33	China	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
	Costa Rica	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Serbia	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
37	Finland	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
	Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	South Africa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0

Nationalities by continent

The European confederation has had the most players selected every year.

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

Rank	Confederation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Total
1	Europe	64	56	62	62	74	67	68	64	64	581
2	North America	19	24	18	22	13	22	18	12	16	164
3	Asia	12	12	11	7	6	5	7	13	7	80
4	South America	4	6	6	6	5	4	6	6	8	51
5	Africa	1	2	2	2	2	2	1	5	5	22
6	Oceania	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2

By club

As of the 2024 edition, players playing for 92 clubs have been selected. French club Lyon has had the most players in the Top 100 with 116 selections in total. In 2022, Barcelona became the first club other than Lyon to have the most players selected in a single year and retained the top spot the following two years. The record for most players selected in a single year is 17, set by Barcelona in 2024. 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	2022	2023	2024	Total
1	Lyon	15	12	14	12	12	15	13	10	13	116
2	Barcelona	3	5	4	8	10	14	14	15	17	90
3	Chelsea	7	7	5	8	11	9	10	10	9	76
4	Wolfsburg	8	7	11	11	10	4	10	5	5	71
5	Arsenal	5	5	5	6	9	11	8	11	9	69
6	Paris Saint-Germain	7	7	5	7	9	12	7	7	5	66
7	Manchester City	8	7	5	4	7	8	8	8	7	62
8	Bayern Munich	6	4	4	4	6	8	8	8	6	54
9	Portland Thorns	5	7	4	4	2	4	4	1	2	33
10	North Carolina Courage	0	4	8	8	5	2	2	1	0	30
11	Seattle Reign	4	4	5	1	0	5	4	0	0	23
12	Real Madrid	0	0	0	2	2	3	4	7	4	22
13	Orlando Pride	4	6	4	2	0	1	0	1	3	21
14	Chicago Red Stars	2	2	4	5	2	2	1	0	2	20
15	Manchester United	0	0	0	1	1	1	4	5	4	16
	Rosengård	4	2	3	1	3	2	0	0	1
17	Houston Dash	5	2	1	1	3	1	1	0	1	15
18	Washington Spirit	2	1	1	3	1	2	1	1	2	14
19	NJ/NY Gotham FC	0	3	0	1	0	2	0	2	5	13
20	Eintracht Frankfurt	4	3	1	1	1	0	1	0	1	12
	Montpellier	3	3	2	3	1	0	0	0	0
22	Melbourne City	4	1	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	11
23	Linköpings	3	2	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	10
24	Atlético Madrid	0	1	1	3	2	2	0	0	0	9
	Juventus	0	0	0	1	2	3	2	1	0
28	San Diego Wave	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	2	8
	Turbine Potsdam	3	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
30	Utah Royals	0	0	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	6
31	Bordeaux	0	0	0	1	2	2	0	0	0	5
	LSK Kvinner	2	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0
31	Aston Villa	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	4
	Canberra United	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
	Essen	0	0	2	1	1	0	0	0	0
	FC Twente	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
	Freiburg	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
	Levante	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	1
	Roma	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
	Sydney FC	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Vålerenga	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
40	Angel City FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	3
	BK Häcken	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0
	Brisbane Roar	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Dalian	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	FSU Seminoles	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Hoffenheim	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
	INAC Kobe	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
	Jiangsu Suning	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
	Kansas City Current	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
	Madrid CFF	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
	Perth Glory	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Tigres UANL	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
	UCLA Bruins	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Vegalta Sendai	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	West Ham United	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0
	Western New York Flash	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Western Sydney Wanderers	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0
52	AC Milan	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2
	Bay FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
	Birmingham City	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Changchun Zhuoyue	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Corinthians	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
	FC Kansas City	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Hammarby	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Kvarnsvedens	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Pachuca	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
	Paris FC	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	PSV Eindhoven	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
	SC Sand	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Stade de Reims	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
	Wuhan	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
71	AC Nagano	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Achilles '29	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Boston Breakers	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Brighton & Hove Albion	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
	Brøndby	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Deportivo Cali	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
	Everton	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
	Inter Milan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	JEF United	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Liverpool	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Newcastle Jets	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Okayama Yunogo Belle	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Örebro	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Racing Louisville	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	Reading	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Santos	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
	São Paulo	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
	Shanghai Shengli	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Suwon FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
	Tottenham Hotspur	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	Urawa Red Diamonds	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
	West Virginia Mountaineers	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Clubs by nation

For the first four years, the United States league system had the most players selected. Since 2020, England has been the most represented and set a new record of 37 players in 2023.

Rank	Nation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Total
1	England	20	20	16	20	31	31	32	37	30	237
2	United States	30	32	30	30	13	19	16	13	22	205
3	France	26	22	21	23	24	29	21	19	18	203
4	Germany	21	21	21	18	19	13	20	13	12	158
5	Spain	3	6	5	13	14	20	19	25	23	128
6	Sweden	9	5	5	4	6	3	0	1	1	34
7	Australia	6	6	8	7	2	0	0	0	0	29
8	Italy	0	0	0	1	2	3	3	5	2	16
9	China	1	2	4	1	1	1	0	1	0	11
10	Japan	2	3	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	10
11	Norway	2	1	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	9
12	Netherlands	0	3	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	7
13	Mexico	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	5
14	Brazil	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	4
15	Colombia	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
	Denmark	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	South Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0

See also

• List of sports awards honouring women
• The Guardian 100 Best Male Footballers in the World
• The Guardian Footballer of the Year
• FIFPro World11
• BBC Women's Footballer of the Year

References

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 6 December 2019.
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 10 December 2021.
8. Laverty, Rich. "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2022". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
9. Laverty, Rich (12 January 2024). "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
10. Laverty, Rich (7 December 2024). "The 100 best female footballers in the world 2024". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2024.