How to choose the best 20 female footballers ever? Ask the experts. We contacted a panel of 13 leading voices on women’s soccer from all over the world, and invited them to name their 10 best players in history. Our 13 experts gave us 29 names in response, and we whittled that down to come up with a list of 20.
Our question was open to interpretation. Experts could select their players on any number of criteria, from silverware, to club exploits, to success with the national team. There were no hard and fast rules about which players were eligible: just choose your best 10 players, we told our experts, and we’ll crunch the numbers to come up with 20.
The panel
Michael Lewis, football historian and Guardian contributor
Beau Dure, football writer and Guardian contributor, covered 2008 Olympics and 2011 Women’s World Cup. Author of Enduring Spirit, a book about the first season of the Washington Spirit in the new NWSL
Carrie Dunn, football writer and author of The Roar of the Lionesses: Women’s Football in England
Tony DiCicco, former USA international. Coached USA to victory at the 1996 Olympics and 1999 Women’s World Cup
Jack Bell, senior media specialist, North American Soccer League
Cheryl Salisbury, former captain of Australia (151 caps and 38 goals)
Grahame Jones, covered 12 men’s and women’s World Cups, the NASL, Major League Soccer, two European Championships, one Copa America and four Olympic tournaments
Kim Wyant, former USA international goalkeeper
Brenda Elsey, Latin American soccer expert and author of Futbolera: Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin American Sport
Tom Sermanni, coach of Orlando Pride. Previously coached Australia and USA
Caitlin Murray, football writer, covered 2015 Women’s World Cup for the Guardian
Tony Leighton, women’s football writer for the Guardian
Kieran Theivam, women’s football writer
How our judges made their choices
- Our judges were asked to select their 10 best players of all time
- They were free to choose whichever female players they wished, from any era.
- Our judges chose 10 names each, and ranked their selection in order from 1-10, No 1 being the best, No 2 second, and so on.
How the voting worked
- The No 1 choice of each judge was awarded 10pts, No 2 given 9pts, down to 1pt for their No 10 choice.
- All the votes were added together to give a final score.
Voting disclosure
- We are hugely grateful to our judges for taking part.
- To allow our judges the freedom to express their opinions without fear or favour, all votes were anonymous.
