The 50 best women's football players who have ever lived: from Marta to Minnert, Wambach to Wiegmann and everyone in between
30. Shannon Boxx
Shannon Boxx of USA (Image credit: Getty Images)
USA midfielder Shannon Boxx would likely rank higher up this list had her career not taken off later than most. Incredibly, Boxx didn’t make her senior USA debut until she was 26, just before the 2003 World Cup.
She went on to become the first player to score in her first three national team matches. Such was her rise, she finished seventh in the 2004 FIFA World Player of the Year award and was a finalist a year later after helping the USA win Olympic gold.
It took until 2015 to get her hands on a World Cup after years dealing with injury and illness, and Boxx got to walk away as one of the team’s greatest midfielders despite her late debut.
29. Kerstin Garefrekes
Kerstin Gasrefrekes of Germany (Image credit: Getty Images)
Germany midfielder Kerstin Garefrekes defined an era that saw her dominate on both the club and international stage.
Whether it was with the all-conquering FFC Frankfurt side or the Germany national team, Garefrekes walked away from her career with an incredible list of honours.
She had already won the Bundesliga Golden Boot before Frankfurt snapped her up, where she went on to win three Bundesliga titles and three Champions League titles spanning across more than a decade.
With Germany, she won back-to-back World Cups and back-to-back European Championships during an incredible six-year spell for the national team. Perhaps not a huge household name, but one of the most decorated German players nevertheless.
Get FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
28. Aya Miyama
Aya Miyama of Japan (Image credit: Getty Images)
Aya Miyama perhaps never got the credit she deserved when she was a player, but is certainly appreciated now she has retired.
Perhaps it’s a summary of her personality that when Japan won the World Cup in 2011, she did not immediately join her teammates in celebration, but went to shake the hands of the opposing USA players.
Miyama could hardly have been more influential in her nation’s greatest success. She was named AFC Footballer of the Year three times and played in an Olympic final and another World Cup final, ending a superb career where she showed off her technical skills and deadly set-pieces 162 times for her country, scoring 38 goals.
27. Pia Sundhage
Pia Sundhage (Image credit: Getty Images)
Sweden’s Pia Sundhage may now be better known for her illustrious coaching career, but being voted the sixth best player of the 20th century shows her playing career wasn’t too shabby either.
When Sundhage retired in 1996, she did so as Sweden’s top scorer at the time with 71 goals in her 146 caps. A classic centre forward, Sundhage was the top scorer as the Swedes won the first-ever official European Championships in 1984 and went on to represent her nation in several more major tournaments.
Sundhage won four Damallsvenskan titles and briefly moved to Italy in the 1980s, which at the time was a sure sign that you were a highly coveted footballer.
26. Anja Mittag
Anja Mittag of Germany (Image credit: Getty Images)
There’s no doubt that Germany’s Anja Mittag is one of the most decorated strikers of the 21st century, and was arguably the best striker anywhere in Europe in the early 2000s.
Retiring as the top scorer in the European Cup with an incredible 51 goals, Mittag won Europe’s most prized club trophy twice, as well as other honours that you could reel off forever.
Five Bundesliga titles, a World Cup, three European Championships and an Olympic bronze medal, plus several youth trophies and individual successes, which includes being named Player of the Year in Sweden twice during her FC Rosengård days. One of the very best goalscorers of her generation.
25. Heidi Støre
Heidi Store of Norway (Image credit: Getty Images)
Norway’s Heidi Støre did what any player dreams of, captained her country to a World Cup triumph in 1995.
Norway were not one of the biggest countries compared to some of their rivals, but Støre’s influence on and off the pitch was pivotal in the team’s historic success.
Beyond that the midfielder, who ended her career with over 150 caps, played in another final in 1991, as well as winning two European Championships in 1987 and 1993.
Støre also won an Olympic medal in Atlanta in 1996 before retiring a year later. A mercurial player with a ton of talent, Støre is one of her nation’s greatest players.
24. Lotta Schelin
Lotta Schelin of Sweden (Image credit: Getty Images)
Lotta Schelin’s contribution to Swedish football cannot be underestimated. Far from a conventional striker, the tall, imposing, yet ultimately unselfish forward still ended her career as her nation’s top goalscorer with 88 goals.
Her list of achievements is as big as any player in the world, and while she was never able to pick up a major honour with her country, she did pick up a vast amount of individual honours and was the top scorer at Euro 2013.
Schelin won eight consecutive league titles with Lyon, as well as two Champions League titles and a whole host of other domestic honours during a highly decorated career.
Considering Tiffeny Milbrett’s full-time career with the USA lasted only ten years, her record of 100 goals in 206 games is an incredibly impressive one, averaging almost a goal every other game.
Milbrett was the ultimate striker and showed herself at big moments in her career, the first of which came when she scored the winner in the 1996 Olympic final against China to get her first of two gold medals.
At the 1999 World Cup, which the USA also won, Milbrett was the team’s top scorer across the tournament and a year later was one of three nominees for the first ever FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award. Overall, she managed to score 12 goals at five major tournaments.
22. Doris Fitschen
German footballer Doris Fitschen (Image credit: Getty Images)
Doris Fitschen is one of the most successful and decorated German players in the sport’s history, yet perhaps not a household name to many. If her four Bundesliga titles don’t do the job, her five European Championship medals should.
Her success and talent spanned across a whole decade, evident by the fact she was named best player at the 1989 European Championships, and ten years later named onto the all-star team at the 1999 World Cup.
A composed defender who propped up a successful Germany side, Fitschen’s contribution was so big she received a special achievement award from UEFA when she retired.
21. Brandi Chastain
Brandi Chastain after scoring the winning World Cup penalty (Image credit: Getty Images)
When you hear the name Brandi Chastain, it’s hard not to think of that World Cup-winning moment in front of her adoring home crowd in 1999. While not a bad moment to define your career, Chastain’s actually spent two whole decades as a professional footballer, and was about so much more than one penalty.
Predominantly a defender of midfielder, Chastain also managed 30 goals across the 192 international caps she accumulated - not a bad return for someone who cared more about stopping the opposition than scoring herself.
A determined individual, Chastain even played - and won - an Olympic gold medal even after suffering an injury in the team's semi-final win. That came three years prior to her second World Cup triumph, but instantly cemented her legacy as one of America's greats.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Rich Laverty has been a women’s football writer for a decade now, covering the game across the FA WSL, several FA Cup finals and live from the 2017 European Championships and 2019 World Cup. He has written regularly for publications in the UK and USA, including The Times, Guardian, Independent, iSport, FourFourTwo, Bleacher Report, The Blizzard, These Football Times and Our Game Magazine.
