Despite enjoying some truly iconic moments throughout in the 1990s, women’s football has truly exploded into the mainstream throughout the 21st century, with professionalism, record-breaking attendances and the expansion, and creation, of several major competitions all big markers of progress over the last 25 years.
In that time, there have been some incredible teams that have enjoyed significant time in the spotlight. In 2003 and 2007, Germany became the first side to win back-to-back Women’s World Cup titles, a feat that the United States matched in 2015 and 2019. From 2016 through to 2021, Lyon won five successive Champions League titles, with a further three coming either side of that incredible purple patch. Unsurprisingly, there are many stars of those teams which feature in GOAL‘s list of the best female footballers of the 21st century.
Though superstars of the 1990s such as Mia Hamm and Sun Wen did play the latter parts of their careers in the 2000s, and enjoy some great successes, their biggest achievements and best years undoubtedly came in the last century, and thus their names – and those of many of their remarkable peers in that same era – are missing from this list. That said, there is no lack of quality here, despite their absences.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at who made the cut as GOAL counts down the best women’s players of the last 25 years…