- Spain and FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmatí ranked No. 1 for the third consecutive year
- Spain, England, and the USA lead all countries in players represented on the list
- Futbol W: ESPN FC Women’s Rank Special breaks down the rankings; exclusive interview with top-ranked Bonmatí
ESPN today revealed its fifth annual ESPN FC Women’s Rankfeaturing the world’s top 50 women’s soccer players of the year. The list is compiled and published by www.ESPN.com/Soccerthe leading global digital platform for soccer news, information, and analysis.
The ESPN FC Women’s Rank evaluates players based on performances throughout 2025 across domestic competitions (league and cup), international club tournaments, and national team competitions. The project includes a digital profile for each player in the top 50, written by ESPN reporters Emily Keogh, Jeff Kassouf, Yash Thakur, Tom Hamilton, and Sam Marsden. (Player statistics are provided by ESPN Global Research.)
The project also features original artwork for each player created by ESPN’s award-winning art department, content distributed across ESPN FC, espnW, and ESPN social media platforms, video highlights on ESPN digital platforms across the world in Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish.
The headlines:
The top five players: For the third consecutive year, FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmatí is ranked No. 1 on the ESPN FC 50 Women’s Rankmarking her third time atop the list in its five-year history. Last week, Bonmatí also captured the 2025 FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award for the third straight year.
Rounding out the top five in the 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank are No. 2 Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona / Spain), No. 3 Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal / Spain), No. 4 Alessia Russo (Arsenal / England), and No. 5 Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current / Malawi). The only other players to have topped the rankings are Spain’s Alexia Putellas (2022) and the USA’s Sam Mewis (2021).
- Top three countries: Spain (9 players), England (8), and USA (7).
- The 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank by FIFA Confederations: The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) leads all six FIFA confederations with 32 players ranked, followed by the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) with 10. The remaining players include three from the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL), three from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and one each from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
- Top five clubs represented on the list: FC Barcelona and Arsenal FC – both finalists in the 2025 UEFA Champions League – are tied with nine players each, followed by Chelsea with seven players, OL Lyonnes with five, and Gotham FC with three.
- The top three leagues represented on the list: The Women’s Super League (WSL) leads all women’s professional soccer leagues with 16 players, while the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Spain’s Liga F are tied with 11 players each.
- S. shut out of top 20: Led by Arsenal’s 2025 UEFA Women’s Champions League–winning fullback Emily Fox (No. 23), no U.S. players ranked in the top 20 – marking the first time in the five-year history of the ESPN FC Women’s Rank that the United States has been absent from the top tier.
The voting panel for the 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank consisted of 25 women’s soccer experts from around the world, including ESPN writers and journalists from Australia, England, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States, and beyond.
World Cup champion Sam Mewis headlined the panel, which also included Kansas City Current and former U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski; Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West; Antonio Contreras, head coach of Chivas and former head coach of Atlético Madrid and Real Betis; Denise Reddy, assistant coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team; Emma Byrne, commentator, former UEFA Champions League winner with Arsenal, and former Republic of Ireland international; among others.
Futbol W: ESPN FC Women’s Rank Special will stream on ESPN+ on Wednesday, December 24, at 7 a.m. ET in the United States, with global availability on Disney+. Hosted by Cristina Alexander with analysts Ali Warrior and Natalia Astrainthe 80-minute program breaks down ESPN FC’s full Top 50 women’s player rankings, including notable omissions and emerging talent. The special features segments from ESPN’s Europe-based team – Alex Scott, Lianne Sanderson, Farrah Williamsand Not to mention Onuoha – and includes a sit-down interview with Spain and FC Barcelona star Aitana Bonmatíconducted by ESPN Spain-based reporter Gemma Solerduring which Bonmatí is presented with the 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank trophy.
About ESPN.com/Soccer:
ESPN.com/soccer is the premier global digital destination for soccer news, analysis, and coverage. With a team of journalists and unparalleled access to soccer teams, players, agents, leagues, newsmakers, associations, and more, ESPN.com/Soccer delivers engaging content across multiple platforms and languages.
To explore the complete rankings and the narratives surrounding the list, click here.
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SPANISH:
ESPN presents 2025 FC Women’s Rankan annual list of the top 50 women’s soccer players
- The Spanish Aitana Bonmatí, FC Barcelona player, occupies first place for the third consecutive year
- Spain, England and the USA are the countries with the greatest representation on the list
- Futbol W: ESPN FC Women’s Rank Special will offer details of the classifications and an exclusive interview with the leader Bonmatí
ESPN today announced its fifth annual edition of ESPN FC Women’s Rankwhich features the top 50 women’s soccer players in the world in 2025. The list is compiled and published by www.ESPN.com/Soccerthe world’s leading digital platform for football news, information and analysis.
ESPN FC Women’s Rank evaluates players based on their performance during 2025 in different national competitions (league and cup), international club tournaments and national team competitions. The project includes a digital profile for each player ranked in the top 50, written by ESPN reporters Emily Keogh, Jeff Kassouf, Yash Thakur, Tom Hamilton and Sam Marsden. (ESPN Global Research provides the statistical data of the players.)
The project also features original artwork for each player, created by ESPN’s award-winning art department, content distributed by ESPN FC, espnW and ESPN’s social media platforms, and highlight videos on ESPN’s digital platforms around the world in Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish.
The headlines:
The five best players: For the third consecutive year in the five-year history of the list, the FC Barcelona player Aitana Bonmatí occupies first place in the ranking of ESPN FC 50 Women’s Rank. Last week, Bonmatí also won The Best award for Best FIFA Women’s Player 2025 for the third consecutive year.
The five best positions on the list 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank are completed with Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona/Spain) in second place, Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal/Spain) thirdly, Alessia Russo (Arsenal/England) in fourth place and Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current/Malawi) in fifth place. The only players who have led the list in other editions are the Spanish Alexia Putellas (2022) and the American Sam Mewis (2021).
- The three best countries: Spain (9 players), England (8) and USA (7).
- The FIFA confederations listed in 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank: The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) leads the six FIFA confederations with 32 qualified players, followed by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football (CONCACAF) with 10. The remaining players include three from the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), three from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), one from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and one from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
- The top five clubs represented on the list: FC Barcelona and Arsenal FC – both finalists in the 2025 UEFA Champions League – are tied with nine players each, followed by Chelsea with seven players, OL Lyonnes with five and Gotham FC with three.
- The three major leagues represented on the roster: The Women’s Super League (WSL) leads all women’s professional soccer leagues with 16 players, while the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Spain’s Liga F are tied with 11 players each.
- USA was left out of the best 20: With the top spot occupied by Arsenal defender and 2025 UEFA Women’s Champions League winner Emily Fox (No. 23), no U.S. player ranked in the top 20, the first time in the U.S.’s five-year history. ESPN FC Women’s Rank that the United States does not appear in the top positions.
The voting panel for 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank It was made up of 25 women’s soccer experts from around the world, including ESPN writers and journalists from Australia, England, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States and other countries.
World Cup champion Sam Mewis led the panel, which also included Vlatko Andonovski, coach of Kansas City Current and former head coach of the US women’s national team; Yael Averbuch West, general manager of Gotham FC; Antonio Contreras, head coach of Chivas and former head coach of Atlético Madrid and Real Betis; Denise Reddy, assistant coach of the US women’s national team, and Emma Byrne, commentator, former UEFA Champions League winner with Arsenal and former Republic of Ireland player; among other experts.
Futbol W: ESPN FC Women’s Rank Special will stream on ESPN+ on Wednesday, December 24 at 7 a.m. ET in the United States, with global availability on Disney+. Presented by Cristina Alexander, together with the analysts Ali Warrior y Natalia Astrainthe 80-minute program will fully break down the rankings of the top 50 women’s soccer players in ESPN FCincluding notable omissions and emerging talents. The special will feature segments presented by the ESPN team in Europe —Alex Scott, Lianne Sanderson, Farrah Williams y Not to mention Onuoha— and will include a personal interview with the Spanish player and FC Barcelona star Aitana Bonmatíby the ESPN reporter based in Spain, Gemma Soler. During the interview, Bonmatí will be presented with the trophy of 2025 ESPN FC Women’s Rank.
About ESPN.com/Soccer:
ESPN.com/soccer is the leading global digital destination for soccer news, analysis and coverage. With a team of journalists and an unparalleled level of access to soccer teams, players, representatives, leagues, notable figures, associations and more, ESPN.com/Soccer offers impactful content across multiple platforms and multiple languages.
To explore the full rankings and narratives around the list, click here.
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