Although women’s football has grown exponentially at all levels in recent times, the passion for and potential of the sport offers vast untapped opportunities.
Below are top ten female footballers of all time:
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.
Her personal accolades are remarkable, earning the Fifa female world player of the year five consecutive times (2006 to 2010). Marta also won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot at the 2007 Women’s World Cup and is the competition’s all-time scoring leader with 15 goals.
The only thing missing from her trophy cabinet is a major championship, although Brazil have come close several times.
The Brazilians took second to Germany at the 2007 World Cup and mined silver medals at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, losing to the United States both times. Having turned 30 in February, Marta is expected to be at full throttle at the Rio Olympics.
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.
She won the Fifa women’s world player of the year the first two years of the award in 2001 and 2002. A member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, Hamm also played a vital role for two Women’s World Cup winning teams in 1991 and 1999, converting a penalty in a shootout in the latter final.
She was also part of two Olympic gold-medal winning sides (1996, 2004) and earned a silver medal in 2000. Hamm is part of the ownership group of the Los Angeles Football Club, which is scheduled to start playing in Major League Soccer in 2017.
3) Michelle Akers (Forward USA)
Talk about leaving a huge legacy. Akers defined not one, but two, positions in women’s soccer. In her younger days, Akers was a lethal striker. At 5ft 10in, her speed was deceptive because she could outrun defenders with her long stride.
She struck twice in the first Women’s World Cup final in 1991, including the game-winner in the final minutes of a 2-1 triumph over Norway. After she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome in 1994, Akers began a second life as a defensive midfielder, preventing goal opportunities instead of finishing them.
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.
We can only wonder what more magic Akers could have produced had she not been struck down by illness (until then she was scoring at almost a goal a game).
A member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, Akers retired at the age of 34, having scored 105 times in 153 international games.
4) Birgit Prinz (Forward, Germany)
Little wonder that 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).
A striker who wasn’t afraid to set up her team-mates, Smith made headlines with Seton Hall University in New Jersey, which wasn’t known for its women’s soccer until the 1990s.
Smith became the first athlete in any sport to be named Big East offensive player of the year and newcomer of the year in the same season. With her college team-mates providing limited attacking talent to complement her awesome ability, Smith still finished with a school-record 76 goals in 51 matches.
Read Also: UEFA Names Chukwueze Among Top 50 Players To Watch
9) Christine Sinclair (Forward, Canada)
So, just how fabulous is Christine Sinclair? Perhaps Abby Wambach said it best several years ago: “I think she’s the best all-around player in the world … I think she is probably is the most underrated player in the whole world.”
In fact, if there is one player who has a shot at Wambach’s international goal scoring record (184 goals), it’s the 33-year-old Sinclair, who enters the Rio Olympics with 162 goals in 230 matches.
Read Also: Women’s Football Faces ‘Almost Existential Threat’, – Report
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.
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