10Greatest Women Football Players of All Time!

When did women’s football start?

Although its first golden age occurred in the United Kingdom in the early 1920s, when one match achieved over 50,000 spectators, The Football Association initiated a ban in 1921 that disallowed women’s football games from the grounds used by its member clubs. The ban stayed in effect until July 1971.

1) Marta (Forward, Brazil)

It should be no surprise that Brazil gave the world two of the greatest players, male and female. Pele established his legacy years ago. Marta Vieira da Silva is still in the process of forging hers as the planet’s most talented player. Marta, nicknamed “Pele in skirts” by the Brazilian master, can do it all. The world has lost track of how many times she has turned a defender around and left her in the dust. That includes dribbling confounding foes with her superb skill, creating goals thanks to her vision, and scoring them thanks to a tenacious desire to succeed.

2) Mia Hamm (Forward, USA)

Hamm, who finished with a world-record 158 international goals when she retired in 2004, was a double threat. Pacey and skillful, she was nominally a forward but often played like a midfielder. If defenders allowed her to run inside, she would go to goal. If they managed to force her outside, she would deliver a lethal, spot-on cross to a teammate on the far side. It certainly didn’t hurt that Hamm was bolstered by a talented supporting cast, some of whom have made this top 20 list. Regardless, her skill, vision and innate scoring ability made her the most dangerous and the best-known women’s player of her generation. Hamm, who made her international debut at 15 in 1987, earned 275 caps while starring for the USA.

3) Michelle Akers (Forward/defensive midfielder, USA)

She helped the red, white and blue to the 1996 Olympic gold medal and to the 1999 World Cup crown as well. Little surprise that Akers was named Fifa’s female player of the 20th century along with China’s Sun Wen. In the USA’s second international match ever in 1987, Akers scored the team’s first goal and went on from there. She retired just before the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

4) Birgit Prinz (Forward/attacking midfielder, Germany)

Prinz was a difficult player to mark because she knew when to shoot, and she combined a physical presence with impressive pace. She demonstrated that in her international debut at 16, striking the game-winner in the 89th minute, 17 minutes after coming on as a substitute. It should come as no surprise that Germany won the 2003 and 2007 Women’s World Cup, with Prinz earning the Golden Ball in the former and the Silver Ball in the latter. In 214 international appearances, she found the net 128 times.

5) Sun Wen (forward, China)

Sun’s goals were not only came in quantity, but quality too. After the striker scored a spectacular, 32-yard free kick in China’s 1-1 draw with the USA at the Sydney Olympics, April Heinrichs, then the American head coach, gave Sun high praise. “I’d pay for her to come to play in the United States in the WUSA [Women’s United Soccer Association],” she said. “She’s so well-rounded. She’s composed and a great leader who leads by example for 90 minutes.”

6) Abby Wambach (forward, USA)

Abby Wambach could be likened to a human battering ram, playing as though her body was invulnerable, although it wasn’t. Wambach never saw a heading opportunity she didn’t like, and she scored more than a third of her goals in the air en route a world-record 184 international strikes in 255 matches (and, by the way, she had 75 assists).

7) Homare Sawa (Forward, Japan)

Overshadowed by flashier players, Sawa let her game do the talking. She was smooth as silk on the ball while starring for Japan during an illustrious 23-year international career, from 1993 to 2015. Sawa gave notice to the rest of the world in her international debut against the Philippines, scoring four times in a win. She retired at the age of 37, collecting 83 goals in 204 appearances, both Japanese records.

8) Kelly Smith (Forward, England)

Kelly Smith was chosen as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2008. She was a special player, the first English female player to make an international impact in modern times. She was lethal with both feet, scoring 46 goals in 117 appearances over a remarkable two-decade international career (1995-2015).

9) Christine Sinclair (Forward, Canada)

When she is at the top of her game, Sinclair can be devastating, playing like a midfielder, bringing the ball forward towards the opposition goal. Like many of her contemporaries, Sinclair made her international debut as a teenager, as a 16-year-old at the Algarve Cup.

10) Nadine Angerer (Goalkeeper, Germany)

When starting goalkeeper Silke Rottenberg suffered a knee injury that kept her out of the 2007 Women’s World Cup, Nadine Angerer took her place and Germany didn’t miss a beat. Moreover, Germany and Angerer didn’t concede in six games – a record – en route to the team’s second successive world title. Angerer also saved Marta’s penalty to preserve a clean sheet in a 2-0 triumph in the final.