Vivianne Miedema, Sam Kerr and the 25 best Women’s Super League players of the 21st century so far – ranked
English women's football entered a new era in 2011 when the Women's Super League was established. In the time since, ...
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Tag: best Women’s Super League
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English women's football entered a new era in 2011 when the Women's Super League was established. In the time since, the league has grown rapidly, and is now fully professional and widely considered the best in the entire women's game. As such, it been able to boast plenty of world-class talent, be they homegrown stars or international icons.
Just as men's football existed before 1992 and the Premier League, women's football in England was of course important before 2011. After all, in 2007, the greatest achievement of any women's club team in the country's history was achieved when Arsenal upset Swedish giants Umea, regarded as 'the Galacticos of women's football', to win the UEFA Women's Cup (now the Champions League).
However, the lack of widespread funding and support for women's football in the pre-WSL era makes it a difficult period to accurately analyse and assess when it comes to ranking the greatest players in the English top-flight. It means that while icons such as Kelly Smith, Alex Scott and Rachel Yankey did play in the WSL, their names are absent from this particular list due to the brief nature of their experiences in the division.
So, who are the greatest WSL players of all time? GOAL ranks the absolute cream of the crop...
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Getty25Mary Earps
Though most recognised for her exploits at Manchester United when it comes to club football, it shouldn't be forgotten that Mary Earps was a talented goalkeeper well before she moved to the north west of England. After all, it was her form for Reading that earned her first nomination to the PFA Team of the Year and would convince two-time European champions Wolfsburg to sign her up. Earps returned from Germany to join United and enjoyed the best years of her career to date with the Red Devils, be it in their colours or those of her country, with whom she would win the European Championship and reach a World Cup final. Twice a winner of The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper award, she also holds the record for most clean sheets in WSL history, having racked up plenty with Doncaster Rovers Belles, Birmingham and Bristol Academy (now Bristol City) before her stints with Reading and United.-
Getty Images24Gemma Bonner
While Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal are the top teams in English women's football today, 10 years ago, Liverpool won the most dramatic title race in WSL history to secure back-to-back triumphs. Third in the table when 2014's final day got under way, three points behind leaders Chelsea, they emerged victorious on goal difference after neither the Blues nor Birmingham could win their final matches. Liverpool's captain that day was Gemma Bonner, the same player who wore the armband 12 months prior when the Reds secured their first title. She was imperious in both seasons to help her childhood club reign supreme and would maintain that form for several years, earning a move to Man City in 2018. Now, by way of a spell in the U.S. with Racing Louisville, Bonner is back at Liverpool and has been a model of consistency since returning, helping the Reds secure an impressive fourth-placed finish in the 2023-24 season thanks to some big wins over the 'big three'. -
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Getty Images23Eni Aluko
Though she only played five seasons in the WSL, spending time in the U.S. before joining Birmingham in 2012 and closing her career out in Italy after a trophy-laden spell with Chelsea, Eni Aluko is well worth her place on this list. One of Emma Hayes' best signings as Chelsea manager, Aluko helped the Blues win their first WSL title in 2015 and a second in 2018, which laid the foundations for the club to take over English women's football. The forward claimed Chelsea's Player of the Year award following the first triumph, was named to the PFA Team of the Year at the end of both title-winning seasons and won the league's Golden Boot in 2016, before later leaving for Juventus. After the WSL established its Hall of Fame in 2021, it was no surprise to see Aluko among those inducted in its second year. -
Getty22Nikita Parris
Just 17 years old when the first WSL season began, Nikita Parris got her breakthrough at Everton, where she came through as a young girl. It wasn't long until one of the most ambitious sides in the league snapped up the talented forward either, with Man City signing her in 2015 before Parris helped the club to win its first, and thus far only, WSL title a year later. It's Parris' 2018-19 season that the forward is best known for, a return of 19 goals from 19 games helping her win the FWA Women's Footballer of the Year award and earn a move to Lyon, the eight-time European champions. However, with Manchester United, she rolled back the years in 2023-24, ending the season as the Red Devils' top goal-scorer. Now at Brighton, alongside another Lionesses veteran in Fran Kirby, Parris is in a fantastic position to add to a goal tally that makes her the fourth-most prolific scorer in WSL history, despite that trophy-laden spell in France. -
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Getty21Jill Scott
By the time the WSL was established, Jill Scott was already a stalwart in English women's football. Nearing 50 caps for her country, the towering and energetic midfielder was then representing a talented Everton side, until Man City lured her across the north west to be a part of their exciting project. With the Cityzens, Scott won seven major honours, including the WSL title, and enjoyed the best football of her wonderful career. Such form was not overlooked in the individual awards either, with her named the WSL's Players' Player of the Year during a nine-year spell at the club, one which came to a close in 2022 when Scott retired from the game. Her impact on the sport has been recognised widely off the pitch too, with an MBE, a PFA Merit Award and induction to the English Football and WSL Halls of Fame among her many individual honours. -
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Getty Images20Keira Walsh
Remarkably, Keira Walsh was never named to the PFA Team of the Year during her eight senior seasons at Man City, something made all the more incredible by the fact that she developed into such a talented midfielder in the WSL that Barcelona paid a world-record fee to sign her in 2022. Don't let that detract from what a marvellous footballer she was during her time in England though, helping the Cityzens win their only WSL title in 2016 before properly establishing herself as one of the best midfielders in the country the year after. Named the supporters' Player of the Season after that 2017-18 campaign, Walsh would also make the FIFPRO World XI at the conclusion of her final season in City blue, having translated strong club form to the international stage by helping England win the European Championships. With her seemingly set to return to the WSL in the summer of 2025, Walsh is likely to only rise up this list in the years to come.-
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Getty Images19Alex Greenwood
Along with Earps, Greenwood is one of just two players on this list to have never actually won the WSL. That hasn't stopped her peers from regularly recognising her quality over the years, though. The England star has been nominated to the PFA Team of the Year four times, a total only four other players can match and just one player can better - that Chelsea icon Ji So-yun, whose five nominations is the most in league history. Greenwood's first inclusion came back in 2016, when she was a left-back playing for Notts County. Plenty has changed since, with the team no longer in existence and the defender now playing a different position. Since returning from a spell abroad with Lyon, Greenwood has transformed into a centre-back and has quickly become one of the very best in the game, never mind the WSL. Named to the PFA WSL Team of the Year in each of the past three seasons, and the FIFPRO World XI in 2023, all that holds Greenwood back from rising further up this list is that lack of a league title. Now the Manchester City captain, she'll hope she can guide her team to a triumph as soon as possible. -
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Getty Images18Ellen White
The Lionesses' all-time top goal-scorer, Ellen White had herself a rather strong WSL career, too. The former striker - who played for Arsenal, Notts County, Birmingham and Man City in this era - sits fifth all-time for goals scored in league history, with a better minutes-per-goal ratio than two of those above her. Her best season was back in 2017-18, when she scored a Golden Boot-winning 15 times in just 14 appearances for Birmingham, while it was her seasons for Arsenal in 2011 and 2012 that returned her two WSL titles. White produced goals wherever she went in an illustrious career that came to a conclusion in 2022, with her induction into the WSL Hall of Fame a year later an absolute no-brainer. -
Getty Images17Leah Williamson
If you're looking for the perfect example of the modern-day defender, look no further than Leah Williamson. A product of Arsenal's academy, it's no surprise that she is has regularly been described by team-mates as the most technically gifted defender in the game. But Williamson is not just on this list because she can play a pass or two. During Arsenal's title-winning season of 2018-19, the then-22-year-old was superb, and she has only gone from strength to strength in the years since. Named to the PFA Team of the Year in three successive seasons between 2020 and 2022, she'd surely have continued that streak if it wasn't for injuries. Having recently recovered from the worst of those, a brutal ACL rupture which robbed her of the chance to captain her country at a World Cup, Williamson is still only 27 years old and, as such, looks to only have her best years ahead of her. -
Getty Images16Ann-Katrin Berger
Arguably the greatest goalkeeper in the WSL era, Ann-Katrin Berger enjoyed eight remarkable seasons in England's top-flight - and the word remarkable can be used for two very different reasons. The first is, of course, because of her talent. Berger joined Birmingham from Paris Saint-Germain in 2016 and immediately set about making an impact in her new surroundings as she was included in the PFA Team of the Year in just her second season. That was a feat she would accomplish thrice more after signing for Chelsea in 2018. But what made the quality of Berger's play all the more incredible was that she twice recovered from a diagnosis of thyroid cancer to reach the very highest level that a goalkeeper can. Famed for her penalty-saving exploits and lightning reflexes, Berger lifted 10 major honours, including five successive WSL titles, with Chelsea and racked up 50 clean sheets, an achievement reached in just 93 appearances. -
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Getty Images15Fara Williams
England's most-capped footballer of all time, Fara Williams' exploits at club level were similarly impressive before she hung up her boots at the end of the 2020-21 season. An Everton player when the WSL began, it was with Liverpool that she enjoyed her greatest success, winning back-to-back titles with the Reds in 2013 and 2014. But when discussing the brilliance of the commanding midfielder, it's equally important to talk about the four years she spent at Reading at the end of her career. The Royals didn't have the finances to compete with the big dogs in the WSL and yet, they did. Williams' experience, paired with her wonderful return of 11 goals from 20 games in the 2018-19 season, helped Reading secure three consecutive top-five finishes in the WSL. A lot of people deserve credit for that achievement, and Williams is certainly among them. -
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Getty Images14Karen Carney
One of the most talented players England has ever produced, Karen Carney returned to her home country from the U.S. ahead of the WSL's inaugural season and she was a leader in more ways than one for Birmingham City, her childhood club. Wearing the armband, the magical midfielder regularly inspired the Blues to victory, with them the closest rivals to a dominant Arsenal team in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Resources at Birmingham were not as great as at other more ambitious teams in the league, though, and in 2016, Carney decided to leave for Chelsea, where Hayes had been trying to lure the England star for several years. The pair had worked together at both Arsenal and the Chicago Red Stars, and their reunion would be a successful one as Carney helped her new club secure their second WSL title - her first. Twice in the PFA Team of the Year and once a Golden Boot winner, Carney probably would've been right near the top of this list had injuries not limited her to single digits for appearances in three of her eight seasons. Still, her impact and talent was more than great enough to land her this spot - and a place in the WSL's Hall of Fame. -
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Getty13Erin Cuthbert
After arriving in the WSL from her native Scotland as a more of a forward, Erin Cuthbert has undergone something of a transformation at Chelsea. She's played almost every position possible at the club - including wing-back - and has since found a home for her tenacious work-rate in a slightly deeper midfield role, providing a destructive presence in the centre of the park as well as still being a creative force that can score goals. Now one of the Blues' leaders, Cuthbert has been crucial to the five-successive league titles the team has won, having still been an emerging talent when helping Chelsea win a second crown - her first - in 2018. Despite her crucial contributions, there's a feeling that the 26-year-old still doesn't get the credit she deserves. She's well worth her place on this list, though, and is sure to soar up the rankings if she continues to perform as she has. -
Getty Images12Katie Chapman
When the WSL was established, Katie Chapman was 28 years old. She'd already won 20 major honours, including the UEFA Women's Cup (now the Champions League), and had twice been named the FA's International Player of the Year. Yet, she still had a heck of a lot to give to a new era in English women's football. By way of a spell in the U.S. with Hayes' Chicago Red Stars, the combative midfielder returned to Arsenal for the launch of the new league and she hit the ground running, helping the Gunners to win back-to-back WSL titles in 2011 and 2012. Then, in 2014, she swapped the red corner of London for the blue and only continued that success, helping Chelsea to win crowns in 2015 and 2018. Those titles laid the foundation for the Blues' recent dominance of the WSL and, at the same time, gave Chapman a high to go out on. Complemented by a record 10th FA Women's Cup winners' medal, the midfielder retired at the end of the 2017-18 season at the age of 35, concluding a truly remarkable career that would later earn her a spot in the WSL Hall of Fame. -
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Getty Images11Lucy Bronze
While it's difficult to argue that the best years of Lucy Bronze's career didn't come abroad, the quality of her first spell in the WSL should not be overlooked. From 2013 to 2017, Bronze won three league titles with two different clubs, was named to the PFA Team of the Year in four successive seasons and won three Players' Player of the Year awards. She was flying. It was no surprise when Lyon, the dominant force in European women's football, came knocking and Bronze would play her part in adding three more Champions League titles to their trophy cabinet, before lifting another two at Barcelona. Now back in England at Chelsea, she'll hope to win another continental crown with the ambitious Blues, but she's also best-placed to add to her list of WSL titles, something which would only add to her credentials when it comes to discussing the league's greatest players. -
Getty10Steph Houghton
If one was to hazard a guess at who will be among those inducted into the WSL Hall of Fame in 2024, Steph Houghton would probably the first name to come to mind. The former England and Man City captain retired at the end of last season, bringing to an end an illustrious career that, among 16 major honours, included three WSL titles. The first two came at Arsenal, who Houghton joined the year before the WSL was established, but it is with City that she is most strongly associated. The defender signed for the club when its women's team became professional in 2014 and has been a remarkable ambassador ever since, guiding the Cityzens to their first WSL triumph back in 2016. Famed for her free-kick taking and exemplary leadership, Houghton had some difficult times towards the end of her playing days. Just as she was in some of the best form of her career, injuries would prevent her from being a part of the Lionesses' European Championship-winning team, while she played a significantly reduced role in her final season in the game. Sometimes, those factors can lead to the impeccable quality of her heyday being forgotten - and it shouldn't. Houghton was a brilliant player, one of the best the WSL has seen.-
Getty9Jordan Nobbs
Just 18 years old when the WSL was established, Jordan Nobbs had made a monumental move just a year earlier when she swapped childhood club Sunderland for Arsenal, the dominant force in English women's football at the time. It was a big step up and took her quite a distance from home, but it was a transfer that would help her become one of the WSL's greatest players. In the league's first two seasons, she and the Gunners triumphed, and the talented midfielder was such a stalwart that she starred when they scaled the mountain again in 2019. In the gap between those triumphs, Nobbs wasn't short of individual accolades either, twice named to the PFA Team of the Year while also winning the FA Player and Players' Player of the Year awards. All good things must come to an end, and when Nobbs struggled for game time in the 2022-23 season, she made the difficult decision to end her 13-year association with Arsenal. Joining Aston Villa has allowed her to continue to thrive though, with her playing a significant role in their impressive fifth-placed finish that first season before becoming the WSL's all-time leading appearance maker earlier this year. -
Getty Images8Beth England
Only one player has scored more goals in WSL history than Beth England, and that player is Vivianne Miedema. It's a testament to the longevity and bounce-back-ability of a striker that has had some difficult spells through her 13 seasons in the WSL and was playing second-tier football for two years in the middle of them, with Doncaster Rovers Belles. Chelsea snapped her up in 2016 from the Yorkshire outfit, but England initially struggled to break into the team. A loan spell at Liverpool beckoned and the striker herself has admitted that she thought that meant she wasn't wanted by the Blues. However, after bagging 10 WSL goals in 16 games on Merseyside, she returned to London with a spring in her step and backed it up with two outstanding seasons, the latter of which ended in a WSL title and a whole heap of individual accolades. Things would soon become tricky again, though. While she initially looked set to form a deadly partnership with Sam Kerr, the Australia star's arrival actually ended up reducing England's game time, forcing her to make the difficult decision to leave Chelsea. However, a new chapter at Tottenham has thus far proved to be a real success. After signing for the club in January 2023, England scored 12 goals in 12 games to fire the relegation-threatened side to safety and would later become club captain, guiding Spurs to the 2024 Women's FA Cup final - its first major final on the women's side. -
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AFP7Millie Bright
There are only two players in WSL history who have won seven league titles, and Millie Bright is one of them. The Chelsea captain has been a stalwart for the club ever since arriving from Doncaster Rovers Belles back in 2014, developing into one of the most commanding centre-backs the league has ever seen under Hayes. Named to the PFA Team of the Year three times, all at the end of title-winning seasons, that number would surely be higher if it wasn't for some frustrating injuries in the past two seasons in particular. However, those circumstances only give further reason to highlight the role Bright plays off the pitch too, with her leadership as big a reason for her ranking being so high on this list as her rock solid defending. -
Getty Images Sport6Beth Mead
Miedema and England are the only two players who have more WSL goals to their name than Beth Mead, whose time in the league can be divided into two quite distinct parts. The first came at Sunderland, where her goals helped fire the club to back-to-back promotions to the WSL. As a prolific No.9, Mead netted 89 times in 109 games across five seasons, including 12 in 14 in her first year in the top-flight. It was a return that earned her a whole heap of accolades, including the Golden Boot, and helped the newly-promoted Black Cats secure an impressive fourth-placed finish. It wasn't long until a big move beckoned, and it was with Arsenal that she chose to take the next steps of her career. It was a transfer that also required a positional switch and Mead certainly rose to the challenge, mastering her new wide role to such a degree that it's strange to think that she wasn't a natural in it. No one has more assists in WSL history than the England star, who also holds records for the most in a single season and the most WSL Player of the Month awards. -
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Getty5Sam Kerr
Sam Kerr has only played five seasons in the WSL and yet she comfortably sits among the top five players in league history. That says everything about the impact she has made in England and the world-class quality she has consistently brought to the table since joining Chelsea midway through the 2019-20 season. In the time since, Kerr has won two Golden Boots, three Player of the Year awards and earned three PFA Team of the Year nominations. She's won 10 major honours, including five successive WSL titles, and scored 99 goals in 128 matches. Of those, 58 have come in the WSL, in just 75 outings, meaning she already sits seventh on the list of the league's all-time top goal-scorers, boasting a better minutes-per-goal ratio than any of those above her. In fact, of players to score four or more goals, she has the second-best minutes-per-goal ratio in WSL history. It's safe to say that in a few years time, Kerr is likely to only be higher up this list. -
Getty4Fran Kirby
It's difficult to put into words just what a delight Fran Kirby is when she is in full flow. It's the kind of thing one just has to see for themselves, to watch how effortlessly she glides forward with or without the ball, into spaces where she will inevitably hurt the opposition with a deadly finish or a perfect pass. Kirby's magnum opus was the 2020-21 season, when she scored 16 goals and provided 12 assists in just 18 WSL games, helping Chelsea to win back-to-back titles for the first time in their history. Her link-up play with Kerr was an absolute dream and opponents just had no answer for them. It was a magical year, one in which everything really came together for the England star. Before and since, injuries and illness have been cruel to a player who left Chelsea after nine wonderful, trophy-laden years in the summer. But the manner in which Kirby always seemed to bounce back only added to her greatness, with her conjuring up key contributions aplenty to always play her part in the Blues' successes. Now at Brighton, Kirby is unlikely to add to her seven WSL titles, an individual record that she shares with Bright, but she's already made a start on adding to her goals record, with a fast start to life on the south coast helping her to move into the WSL's top five all-time goal-scorers. -
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Getty3Kim Little
It's easy to summarise the greatness of forward players, to reel off the number of goals they scored, the importance of them, the Golden Boot accolades and the more probable individual awards they pick up as a result of such attacking brilliance. It's a bit trickier when trying to explain why a player like Kim Little, who has become more of a deep-lying midfielder in recent years, deserves to mix it with those stars near the very top of this list. That's not to say there are not stats that can be reeled off for the Scotland icon. Little has won 15 major honours at Arsenal, including three WSL titles. In 2013, she was named PFA Players' Player of the Year and she has been nominated to the PFA Team of the Year on three occasions, too. On the list of the WSL's all-time top goal-scorers, she sits in seventh, only behind six out-and-out attackers - all of whom are on this list. But none of that best describes what makes Little one of the best players the WSL has ever seen. It's better explained in the comments from her team-mates, her peers and opposing managers, who consistently recognise that she is one of the classiest footballers around. "In my opinion, she should always be in the top three in the world," fellow Arsenal midfielder Lia Walti said just last year. That's how good those who see her up close believe she is. -
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Getty2Ji So-yun
We can talk about Ji So-yun in a similar vein to Little. An insanely talented midfielder, rather than a goal-getting striker, her impact and brilliance is better explained by more subjective methods, rather than the objectivity provided by statistics and numbers. Again, there are still plenty of the latter for the Chelsea icon to brag about. No player has won more PFA Team of the Year nominations than the five Ji received in her nine seasons in the league. WSL Players' Player of the Year in 2014 and PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2015, she was consistently brilliant in the middle of the park to help the Blues win their first WSL title - and then another four. But Ji's quality is best described in words, rather than numbers. "I have never seen a player like Ji in the women’s game," Hayes said when the Korean star departed Chelsea in the summer of 2022. "She has left such a massive stamp on my heart. She is a dream to watch and Ji at her best, I don’t think there’s been anyone better in this country." -
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Getty Images1Vivianne Miedema
The sheer number of WSL records that Vivianne Miedema holds is absolutely ridiculous. Among the most impressive: the most goals in league history, the most goals scored in a single season, the most hat-tricks in league history, the most goals scored in a single match, the fastest player to reach 50 goals and the fastest player to reach 100 goal involvements. She is an absolute machine. But the goals only tell half the story. Despite coming to the fore in the women's game as a No.9, Miedema has always described herself as more of a '9.5' because of how much she likes to drop into the spaces a No.10 would pick up and create for others. As such, those assists, the third-most in WSL history, also play a significant role in her brilliance. It's rare to find such a devastating finisher who can also conjure up magic for their team-mates. Usually, there is a trade-off. You can be brilliant at one and not so great at the other, or you can be okay at both. Miedema is a world-class No.9 and a world-class No.10. It's what makes her the greatest player in WSL history.
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