Greatest Female Soccer Players of All Time, Ranked

Marta has never won a World Cup. She’s also the all-time leading scorer in the tournament’s history and has collected the FIFA Best Women’s Player award more times than anyone else, male or female category included. That contradiction sums up how a “greatest ever” list has to work in women’s football: trophies matter, but so do individual brilliance, records, and how far a player pushed the level around her. Here are the 12 names who define that debate, ranked.

How We Ranked Them

Every player below is judged on four things: major individual honors (Ballon d’Or Féminin, FIFA World Player of the Year), World Cup and Olympic success, career scoring and appearance records, and era-adjusted impact. A player who dominated the 1990s worked with a fraction of today’s professionalism and depth of opposition, so longevity and influence count for as much as raw stats.

The Ranking at a Glance

1. Marta

Brazil’s Marta remains the central figure in any greatest-of-all-time conversation. She won six FIFA World Player of the Year awards, five of them consecutive from 2006 to 2010, a run no other player has matched, and she’s the all-time leading scorer in Women’s World Cup history with 17 goals across six tournaments between 2003 and 2023. The one gap is a World Cup title — Brazil reached the final only once, in 2007 — but no individual résumé in the women’s game comes close otherwise.

2. Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm was the face of American women’s soccer through the 1990s boom, winning the World Cup in 1991 and 1999 and Olympic gold in 1996 and 2004. Her 158 international goals stood as a world record for years, and she twice won the FIFA World Player of the Year award (2001, 2002). Beyond the stats, Hamm’s popularity built the commercial foundation the modern women’s game still stands on.

3. Christine Sinclair

Canada’s Christine Sinclair holds the all-time international scoring record for any player in history, male or female, with 190 goals across more than 330 caps. She played in six World Cups and won Olympic gold at the delayed Tokyo Games, a career spanning two full decades at the top level. Sinclair never lifted a World Cup, but her consistency and longevity as Canada’s talisman put her among the top names on any credible all-time list.

4. Birgit Prinz

Germany’s Birgit Prinz won back-to-back World Cups in 2003 and 2007 and collected the FIFA World Player of the Year award three straight times from 2003 to 2005, a run only Marta has topped. She held the Women’s World Cup scoring record with 14 goals until Marta passed her, and was central to Germany’s run of five UEFA Women’s Euro titles. That combination of finishing and sustained international success makes her an easy top-five pick.

5. Abby Wambach

Abby Wambach scored 184 international goals for the United States, the second-highest total in women’s soccer history, and won a World Cup title in 2015 to go with the 2012 FIFA World Player of the Year award. Her most famous moment came in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal against Brazil: a stoppage-time header in the 122nd minute that forced penalties and became one of the sport’s most replayed clips.

6. Homare Sawa

Homare Sawa delivered one of women’s football’s great individual tournaments at the 2011 World Cup, leading Japan to a shock title over the heavily favored USA while winning both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot with five goals. That performance earned her the 2011 FIFA World Player of the Year award. Sawa’s international career stretched across six World Cups and more than 20 years, making her Japan’s defining player of the modern era.

7. Sun Wen

China’s Sun Wen was the standout of the 1999 World Cup, winning both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot as China reached the final before losing to the United States on penalties. FIFA later named her joint Female Player of the Century alongside Michelle Akers. Sun Wen’s technical quality made her a pioneering figure for Asian women’s football at a time when the sport had far less global infrastructure.

8. Michelle Akers

Michelle Akers shares the FIFA Female Player of the Century title with Sun Wen, earned through two World Cup titles (1991, 1999) and a legendary run at the inaugural 1991 tournament, where she scored 10 goals — a single-tournament record that stood for years. She played much of her career managing chronic fatigue syndrome, and is remembered as one of the foundational figures who made the modern women’s game possible.

9. Megan Rapinoe

Megan Rapinoe had arguably the single best individual tournament on this list at the 2019 World Cup, winning the Golden Ball, the Golden Boot, and the Ballon d’Or Féminin in the same year as the USA’s title. Beyond the trophies, Rapinoe became one of the sport’s most influential public figures, driving the USWNT’s equal-pay fight to a landmark settlement.

10. Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan won two World Cups with the United States (2015, 2019) and two Olympic gold medals, becoming one of the most recognizable athletes in women’s sport globally. Her scoring output — well over 100 international goals — came with a marketability that helped grow the NWSL and the sport’s US audience. Morgan was also a lead plaintiff in the USWNT’s equal-pay lawsuit, making her business impact as significant as her play on the field.

11. Aitana Bonmatí

Aitana Bonmatí is the defining player of the current era. She won the Ballon d’Or Féminin in 2023, 2024, and 2025 — the first player of either gender to win three straight — and was the standout of Spain’s 2023 World Cup triumph, taking home the tournament’s Golden Ball. Her midfield control has powered Barcelona to multiple domestic trebles, and as of the 2025-26 season she remains the sport’s most decorated active player.

12. Alexia Putellas

Alexia Putellas won back-to-back Ballon d’Or Féminin awards in 2021 and 2022, establishing Barcelona and Spain’s dominance before a serious ACL injury interrupted her prime. She returned to reclaim her place among the world’s best midfielders, and alongside Bonmatí has helped Spain and Barcelona combine to win every Ballon d’Or Féminin since 2021. See our Ballon d’Or winners guide for the full history.

How We Ranked Them, Revisited

This list leans toward individual honors and World Cup success because those are the clearest markers across eras — a pure goal-tally ranking would push Sinclair and Wambach higher, and a peak-dominance ranking would put Bonmatí closer to the top. For more of the sport’s history and records, browse our football guides, the FIFA Women’s World Cup’s all-time records, and how the men’s greatest players of all time debate compares.