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

Top 10

As of 2020, 22 individual players have made into the "Top 10" in the Top 100 list.

Lucy Bronze and Wendie Renard are the only players to be Top 10 selections in every Top 100 edition.

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

Overall

By nationality

As of the 2020 edition, players from 34 nations have made up the Top 100. The United States has been the most represented nation in total (78) with a record 18 individuals in 2017. In 2020, Germany became the first nation other than the United States to be the most represented. Finland and Serbia are the most recent nations to debut.

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

Rank	Nation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
1	United States	16	18	16	19	9	78
2	England	14	11	11	10	10	56
3	Germany	10	7	11	7	13	48
4	France	12	6	9	10	10	47
5	Netherlands	4	9	6	6	8	33
6	Sweden	8	2	5	9	8	32
7	Spain	3	4	4	7	8	26
8	Australia	6	8	5	2	3	24
9	Brazil	3	5	4	5	4	21
10	Norway	3	4	4	5	4	20
11	Japan	4	3	4	4	2	17
12	Canada	3	4	2	2	3	14
13	Denmark	2	4	3	1	2	12
14	Scotland	3	0	1	2	3	9
15	Switzerland	1	2	3	0	1	7
16	Iceland	1	1	1	1	1	5
	South Korea	1	1	1	1	1
	Malawi	1	1	1	1	1
19	Nigeria	0	1	1	1	1	4
19	Portugal	1	1	1	1	0	4
21	Austria	0	3	0	0	0	3
	Belgium	1	1	1	0	0
	Chile	0	0	1	1	1
	Italy	0	0	0	1	2
	Poland	0	0	1	1	1
	Venezuela	1	1	1	0	0
	Wales	1	1	1	0	0
28	China	1	0	1	0	0	2
	Costa Rica	0	2	0	0	0
	Ireland	0	0	0	1	1
	Jamaica	0	0	0	1	1
	New Zealand	0	0	1	1	0
33	Finland	0	0	0	0	1	1
33	Serbia	0	0	0	0	1	1

Nationalities by continent

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

Rank	Confederation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
1	Europe	64	56	62	62	74	318
2	North America	19	24	18	22	13	96
3	Asia	12	12	11	7	6	48
4	South America	4	6	6	6	5	27
5	Africa	1	2	2	2	2	9
6	Oceania	0	0	1	1	0	2

By club

As of the 2020 edition, players playing for 72 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	Total
1	Lyon	15	12	14	12	12	65
2	Wolfsburg	8	7	11	11	10	47
3	Chelsea	7	7	5	8	11	38
4	PSG	7	7	5	7	9	35
5	Manchester City	8	7	5	4	7	31
6	Arsenal	5	5	5	6	9	30
6	Barcelona	3	5	4	8	10	30
8	North Carolina Courage	0	4	8	8	5	25
9	Bayern Munich	6	4	4	4	6	24
10	Portland Thorns	5	7	4	4	2	22
11	Orlando Pride	4	6	4	2	0	16
12	Chicago Red Stars	2	2	4	5	2	15
13	Seattle Reign	4	4	5	1	0	14
14	Rosengård	4	2	3	1	3	13
15	Houston Dash	5	2	1	1	3	12
15	Montpellier	3	3	2	3	1	12
17	Melbourne City	4	1	4	1	1	11
18	Frankfurt	4	3	1	1	1	10
18	Linköpings	3	2	1	3	1	10
20	Turbine Potsdam	3	3	2	0	0	8
20	Washington Spirit	2	1	1	3	1	8
22	Atlético Madrid	0	1	1	3	2	7
23	Utah Royals	0	0	2	4	0	6
24	LSK Kvinner	2	0	1	2	0	5
25	Canberra United	1	1	0	2	0	4
	Essen	0	0	2	1	1
	Freiburg	0	1	1	1	1
	Real Madrid	0	0	0	2	2
	Sky Blue FC	0	3	0	1	0
	Sydney FC	1	2	1	0	0
	Vålerenga	0	1	1	1	1
32	Bordeaux	0	0	0	1	2	3
	Brisbane Roar	0	1	1	1	0
	Dalian	1	1	1	0	0
	FSU Seminoles	1	1	1	0	0
	Jiangsu Suning	0	0	1	1	1
	Juventus	0	0	0	1	2
	Perth Glory	0	1	1	1	0
	UCLA Bruins	1	1	0	1	0
	Western New York Flash	3	0	0	0	0
	Western Sydney Wanderers	0	0	0	2	1
42	Birmingham City	0	0	1	1	0	2
	Changchun Zhuoyue	0	1	1	0	0
	FC Kansas City	1	1	0	0	0
	FC Twente	0	2	0	0	0
	Göteborg	0	0	0	0	2
	INAC Kobe	0	0	1	1	0
	Kvarnsvedens	1	1	0	0	0
	Manchester United	0	0	0	1	1
	SC Sand	0	2	0	0	0
	Vegalta Sendai	0	2	0	0	0
52	AC Nagano	0	1	0	0	0	1
	Achilles '29	0	1	0	0	0
	Boston Breakers	1	0	0	0	0
	Brighton & Hove Albion	0	0	0	0	1
	Brøndby	0	1	0	0	0
	Everton	0	0	0	0	1
	Hammarby	0	0	1	0	0
	Hoffenheim	0	1	0	0	0
	JEF United	1	0	0	0	0
	Juvisy	1	0	0	0	0
	Liverpool	0	1	0	0	0
	Newcastle Jets	0	0	1	0	0
	Okayama Yunogo Belle	1	0	0	0	0
	Örebro	1	0	0	0	0
	PSV Eindhoven	0	0	0	0	1
	Santos	0	0	0	0	1
	São Paulo	0	0	0	1	0
	Urawa Red Diamonds	0	0	0	1	0
	West Ham United	0	0	0	0	1
	West Virginia Mountaineers	1	0	0	0	0
	Wuhan	0	0	1	0	0

Clubs by nation

Rank	Nation	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Total
1	United States	30	32	30	30	13	122
2	France	26	22	21	23	24	116
3	England	20	20	16	20	31	107
4	Germany	21	21	21	18	19	100
5	Spain	3	6	5	13	14	41
6	Australia	6	6	8	7	2	29
6	Sweden	9	5	5	4	6	29
8	China	1	2	4	1	1	9
8	Norway	2	1	2	3	1	9
10	Japan	2	3	1	2	0	8
11	Netherlands	0	3	0	0	1	4
12	Italy	0	0	0	1	2	3
13	Brazil	0	0	0	1	1	2
14	Denmark	0	1	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.

[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.

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