Women’s football is in the limelight again, hitting national headlines in the past week with a couple of unfortunate stories – Chelsea and England player Eni Aluko alleging that the national team manager Mark Sampson made “racist” Ebola remarks and a group of female Grimsby Town supporters saying they were “shocked and stunned ” after being asked to show their bras during security searches at Stevenage.
As they say though, all news is good news, meaning these two incidents have raised the profile of the women’s game.
And getting back to the game, here’s our pick of the top international female footballers to watch out for this year. If you haven’t heard of them yet, you will do soon. Keep your eyes peeled because these rising stars are the ones to watch in 2017.
Lucy Bronze
The 25-year old England right-back joined the Women’s Champions League winners Olympique Lyonnais from Manchester City on a three-year contract last week, turning down a deal with City that would have made her their highest paid player. She was named the PFA Women’s Player of the Year for the second time in 2017 and made it into the UEFA Team of the Tournament at the Women’s EURO 2017 in the Netherlands where she helped the Lionesses reach the semi-finals. Lucy is also one of the contenders for the Best FIFA Women’s Player 2017… fingers crossed the Brit will be crowned winner on 23rd October.
Carli Lloyd
The American midfielder signed a loan deal with Manchester City in February, and played alongside Bronze when the club lifted the FA Women’s Cup for the first time in front of a 35,000 crowd at Wembley. The 35-year old was voted the Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2015 and in 2016 and is one of the finalists for this year’s award! She is also a 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup winner and a two-time Women’s Olympic Gold medallist. Lloyd added some literary strings to her bow with the publication of her memoir “When Nobody was Watching” in September 2016.
Dzsenifer Marozsán
The 25-year old, who was born in Hungary and moved to Germany with her family in 1996, has become one of the country’s most talented players. Marozsán won the French League Cup and UEFA Champions League in her first season with Olympique Lyonnais. She was named Germany captain in October 2016 after she helped the team win the Olympic Gold in the Rio games.
Lieke Martens
The 24-year-old Dutch left winger who recently joined Barcelona has had an incredible season, capped by being voted player of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 where she scored three goals and provided two assists for the Netherlands who beat Denmark in the final. She also scored the Netherlands’ first ever World Cup goal at the tournament in Canada in 2015.
Vivianne Miedema
Another Dutch star, 21-year old striker Miedema, scored the winning goal against England in the semi-final of the EURO 2017 and scored twice in the final against Denmark. She made her international debut at the age of just 17 and played her first FIFA Women’s World Cup game in Canada in 2015 aged 18. She switched to Arsenal Women this summer following three seasons with Bayern Munich where she scored 35 goals in 61 appearances, and won two Bundesliga league titles.
