Best Female Soccer Players in the World

​​​Women’s soccer has been growing at a healthy rate over the last four years following the United States winning the 2019 FIFA World Cup in France. A solid 2-0 victory over Sarina Wiegman’s Netherlands may have marked their fourth World Cup triumph, but the world had really started to take notice with strong Sweden and England sides finishing third and fourth respectively.

Three years later – a year delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and host nation England did the unthinkable and succeeded in winning the UEFA European Championship with a stunning 2-1 extra-time win over Germany. Then just a year later the Lionesses fell short at the final hurdle of the 2023 World Cup, losing 1-0 to Spain in Australia in what is now officially the best-attended edition of the competition ever held.

In this guide we will examine the best female soccer players in the world, assessing the top 15 in further detail.

• Aitana Bonmati
• Alexia Putellas
• Sam Kerr
• Alexandra Popp
• Olga Carmona
• Mary Earps
• Wendie Renard
• Marta
• Lena Oberdorf
• Beth Mead
• Vivianne Miedema
• Alex Morgan
• Keira Walsh
• Who Is the Top Woman Soccer Player in the World?

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Aitana Bonmati

Bonmati has a strong case to be regarded as the best female soccer player in the world after a stunning year that saw her play an integral role in Spain winning the 2023 Women’s World Cup. The 25-year-old was awarded the Golden Ball for the best overall player of the tournament and recently picked up the Ballon d’Or Feminin.

Throw in Bonmati being crowned Champions League Player of the Season for 2022/23 as she helped Barcelona overcome Roma and Chelsea before beating Wolfsburg 3-2 in the final in Eindhoven, and you have quite the case.

Born in Vilanova i la Geltrú – a town in the Garraf region of Catalonia – Bonmati came through Barcelona’s La Masia academy and has been with the club since the age of 14, crediting her idols as club legends Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

She already has four Primera Division titles to her name as well as two Champions Leagues, five Copa de la Reina, three Supercopa de Espana and four Copa Catalunya. Bonmati was also named Player of the Match in the 2021 Champions League final, where she scored Barcelona’s third goal in a 4-0 drubbing of Chelsea.

In the 2022/23 campaign, the midfielder vastly improved her goalscoring record, scoring a total of 19 times across all competitions as her team landed another domestic league and Champions League double.

Alexia Putellas

Putellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest female soccer players of all time, having secured back-to-back Ballon d’Or Feminin awards in 2021 and 2022. She serves as captain for both club and country, having previously played for Levante and Espanyol. Since joining Barcelona in 2012, the 29-year-old has enjoyed glittering success winning seven league titles, seven Copas de la Reina and two Champions League trophies.

During the 2020/21 season Putellas played a pivotal role in Barcelona’s continental treble, the first time they had done so in the club’s history. She went on to win the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year Award, Ballon d’Or Feminin and Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2021, becoming the first player to win all three in the same year.

Unfortunately, an ACL knee injury stopped her from playing at Euro 2022, but she still won all three awards again that year – in doing so becoming the first woman to complete the feat in successive years. On the international stage, she had success with Spain’s youth teams before leading the national side to 2023 World Cup glory and overtaking Marta Torrejon for the record of most appearances for her country.

Sam Kerr

Widely regarded as one of the best forwards to ever grace the women’s game, Kerr is the all-time leading Australian international scorer as well as the all-time leading scorer in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States.

She is the only female soccer player to have won the Golden Boot in three different leagues across three continents – the W-League in Australia and New Zealand, NWSL in North America, and Women’s Super League (WSL) in England.

Since joining Chelsea in 2020 she has won the WSL in four successive seasons, firing the Blues to a domestic double in 2022/23 with 29 goals in 38 appearances. She was selected third in the Ballon d’Or Feminin rankings for both 2021 and 2022, and has been nominated for the award in 2023.

Despite being blighted by injury for much of the 2023 World Cup, Kerr scored Australia’s only goal of the game as they were knocked out by England in a 3-1 defeat in the semi-finals.

Alexandra Popp

Popp is one of the top women soccer players in the game, having finished Euro 2022 as joint top-scorer alongside Beth Mead with six goals. She heartbreakingly missed the final through injury, only able to watch on as her Germany team-mates fell to England 2-1 in extra time.

The 32-year-old was the Frauen-Bundesliga top scorer in the 2022/23 season with Vfl Wolfsburg, before finishing third in the race for the 2023 World Cup Golden Boot with four goals to her name despite Germany surprisingly crashing out at the group stage.

She has already achieved so much in the game, having won three Champions League titles – first in 2008/09 for FCR 2001 Duisburg, and then twice with Wolfsburg in 2012/13 and 2014/14. Popp also helped Germany win gold at the Olympic Games in 2016 and recently overtook Inka Grings to become the third-highest goalscorer of all-time for the German national team.

Olga Carmona

Carmona played a key role in Spain’s triumph at the 2023 World Cup, captaining the side in both the semi-final and final and scoring decisive goals in each game. Her 89th-minute winner earned Spain a 2-1 win over Sweden and set up a final showdown with England, where she scored the only goal of the game and was named Player of the Match.

Aged just 23, she began her career with Sevilla before earning a move to Real Madrid’s newly-formed women’s team in 2020. In the 2022/23 season she was an important player for Real who finished as league runners-up to Barcelona and lost out in the final of the Copa de la Reina to rivals Atletico Madrid.

Mary Earps

England goalkeeper Earps received the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper of the tournament at the 2023 World Cup, after recording clean sheets against Haiti, Denmark, and Nigeria, and only conceding four goals in seven goals in total. Her heroics in the penalty shootout win over Nigeria landed her the Player of the Match award, while her larger-than-life personality has endeared her to fans across the game.

She was a key member of the England team that won Euro 2022 and was named in the UEFA Team of the Tournament after earning four clean sheets and conceding just twice in six matches. At club level, Earps helped Manchester United to runners-up in the 2023 FA Cup and has previously won the Frauen-Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal – both in 2018/19 – for Vfl Wolfsburg.

Wendie Renard

Renard is one of the most decorated players in modern women’s club football, having won a record 14 French league titles and eight Champions Leagues. She was born in Martinique but moved to Lyon as a 16-year-old and has played a pivotal role in them becoming the most successful club in European women’s football.

Captaining both Lyon and France, her exploits at club level haven’t quite been matched internationally with France failing to ever make it past the quarter-finals at a World Cup, medal at the Olympics, and only reaching the semi-finals of the Euros once in 2022.

Marta

A global icon, Marta is often regarded as the greatest female footballer of all time having been named FIFA World Player of the Year six times, five coming consecutively from 2006 to 2010. She holds the record for most goals for Brazil with 115, and with 17 goals also holds the record for most goals scorer in any World Cup – men’s or women’s.

She was the first footballer of any gender to score at five different World Cups and the first female footballer to score at five consecutive Olympic Games. The forward helped Brazil to runners-up at the 2007 World Cup, ending the tournament as top scorer with seven goals and also taking home the Golden Ball. Marta was also part of the Brazil team that secured the silver medal at the Olympics in both 2004 and 2008.

At club level, she won the Women’s Cup – now called the Champions League – in the 2003/04 season with Swedish club Umeå IK, as well as seven Swedish league championships during her time playing for various teams in the country.

Lena Oberdorf

Oberdorf is still only 21 but her exploits in midfield for club and country have put her in the conversation to be the best girl soccer player in the world. She was named Young Player of the Tournament at Euro 2022 for her performances as Germany narrowly fell short in the final, having become a mainstay in the team over the last few years.

Having left SGS Essen for Vfl Wolfsburg, she picked up the Young Player of the Season award in the Champions League for 2022/23 after helping Wolfbsurg to the final, while she was a driving force behind their championship success in 2021/22.

Beth Mead

An ACL knee injury disrupted Mead during the best year of her career, having helped England win Euro 2022 where she was the Golden Boot winner, player of the tournament, and the top assist provider.

Later that year she was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year – in doing so becoming the first female footballer to win the award – as well as finishing runner-up for the Ballon d’Or Feminin and UEFA Player of the Year.

In 2015 she won the WSL Golden Boot and Player of the Year award for Sunderland, joining Arsenal two years later and being converted to a winger where she won the WSL title in 2018/19.

Vivianne Miedema

Another Arsenal player who suffered an ACL tear at the end of 2022, Miedmema has already cemented her position as one of the best forwards in the women’s game. She won Euro 2017 with Holland and helped her national team to runners-up at the 2019 World Cup, where they fell to the United States in the final.

At club level, she won back-to-back Frauen-Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich in 2015 and 2016, before joining Arsenal and helping them to the WSL title in the 2018/19 campaign.

The 27-year-old picked up the WSL Golden Boot that year and in 2019/20 was top goalscorer domestically and in the Champions League. Miedema has won a host of individual awards including the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year award in 2019 and the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year award in 2021, and was shortlisted for the Ballon d’Or Feminin in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Alex Morgan

Morgan is a United States legend, having helped her national team win both the 2015 and 2019 World Cups – being named in the Dream Team for both tournaments and earning the Silver Boot at the latter. She also helped the USA win gold at the 2012 Olympics and win the CONCACAF Championship on three occasions in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

Domestically, she has won titles with the Western New York Flash and Portland Thorns, before joining Lyon and landing a continental European treble.

Keira Walsh

A key part of the England team that won Euro 2022, Walsh was named Player of the Match in their 2-1 win over Germany in the final at Wembley. Born in Rochdale, she came through the ranks at Blackburn Rovers before moving to Manchester City as a teenager where she went on to win the WSL in 2016 as well as three FA Cups and four League Cups.

In 2022, Barcelona paid a world-record fee for a female footballer of £400,000 to bring her to Spain, where she won Liga F, the Supercopa de Espana Feminina, and the Champions League in her first season.

Who Is the Top Woman Soccer Player in the World?

Despite the pressing claims of Sam Kerr, Alexia Putellas, Kiera Walsh and others it is simply impossible for us to look past Aitana Bonmati. The midfielder swept all before her in 2023, winning the Ballon d’Or Feminin for the first time. She was a driving force in Spain’s World Cup triumph with three goals and two assists seeing her named Player of the Tournament, while at club level she was instrumental in Barcelona winning Liga F and the Champions League.