The 50 best women's soccer players in the world for 2025, ranked!

It's that time of year again: Let's look at the past 12 months in women's soccer and pick the best of the best. It's now our fifth year of polling experts and putting together a list of the top 50 players in the world for ESPN FC Women's Rank, and it only gets more competitive each year. The list this year reflects how much the landscape in the sport keeps changing. Fourteen players made their debuts on our top 50, seven have landed back on the list after missing out last year, and the race for the top spot was probably closer than you think. The marquee event of the past year was the UEFA Women's Euro in Switzerland, which set new attendance records and the most goals ever scored for the tournament. It served up a thrilling rematch of the 2023 World Cup final between England and Spain , only this time it was England who came out on top after going to penalty kicks. The UEFA Champions League trophy earlier this year was finally wrestled from powerhouses Barcelona and Lyonnes , who have combined to win the nine prior European titles. Instead, Arsenal were the surprise winners, marking the first Champions League win for an English team since 2007. (The 2025-26 UWCL season is underway in the league phase, and again Barcelona and Lyonnes are being chased.) In the U.S., Gotham FC repeated as NWSL champions as the landscape around the American league expanded. The USL Super League completed its inaugural season with Tampa Bay Sun FC becoming the league's first champion, and north of the border the Northern Super League made its debut. The women's game is rapidly growing, which made narrowing down ESPN FC Women's Rank to 50 names harder than ever before, even after absences of players from last year's ranking cleared some space. Notably absent this year: Naomi Girma (No. 2 last year; injured most of this year), Sophia Wilson (No. 5 last year; pregnant this year), Lauren James (No. 10 last year; injured much of this year); and Mallory Swanson (No. 15 last year, pregnant this year). Twenty-five current and former coaches for top-tier clubs or national teams, general managers, analysts and journalists were asked to anonymously pick their top 50 players of 2025. In all, 198 different players earned votes, and this is the final top 50. Presenting ESPN FC Women's Rank: The final top 50 Written by Emily Keogh, Jeff Kassouf, Yash Thakur, Tom Hamilton and Sam Marsden. All stats provided by ESPN Global Research. 50. Olivia Smith Country: Canada Club: Arsenal Age: 21 Position: Forward 2024 Rank: N/A (★ debut) What best reflects Smith's inclusion is the extraordinary effort Arsenal made to secure her signature for a then-world record fee of £1 million last summer. You have to be a rare talent to justify such a transfer fee and the Gunners' determination to bring in the Canada international stemmed from her seven goals and impressive performances during her first breakout...

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