Hermoso, Kerr and Putellas are competing to win The Best FIFA Women’s Player
It was previously called The FIFA Women’s Player of the Year
We deliver some stats on the 20-times-awarded honour
35
Nadine Angerer is the oldest player to collect the award, having been 35 in 2013. Seven of the last ten winners have surprisingly been in their 30s, with Nadine Kessler (26 in 2014), Lieke Martens (24 in 2017) and Lucy Bronze (29 in 2020) the exceptions. Marta is its youngest recipient, having been 20 in 2006.
20
For the first time since its inaugural awarding 20 years ago, each of the top three – Jenni Hermoso, Sam Kerr and Alexia Putellas – have never previously made the podium. Putellas had never even made the initial shortlist for the award, which features ten to 12 players, while Kerr has gone from the shortlist to the podium at the fifth time of asking.
19
It took 19 years for the top three to all hail from the same continent. Lucy Bronze, Pernille Harder and Wendie Renard ensured an all-European podium in 2020.
17
Marta was astonishingly only 17 when she finished on the podium for the first time in 2004. Deyna Castellanos was 18 in 2017, while Cristiane and Fatmire Alushi made it at the age of 22 in 2007 and 2010 respectively.
10
The first ten awards went to just three players: Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz and Marta. The next ten went to eight different players.
9
A German player finished in the top three for nine consecutive years from 2002 to 2010. Germany and the USA have been represented on the podium a joint-best 14 times.
6
Brazil and USA have won a record six trophies apiece. Marta has clinched all of the former’s, while the latter’s were seized by Mia Hamm (twice), Abby Wambach, Carli Lloyd (twice) and Megan Rapinoe.
4
Four straight years finished with Marta first and Prinz second from 2007 to 2010. A Marta-Prinz-Cristiane one-two-three occurred in 2007 and 2008 – the only time in history that the women’s or men’s award has had the same three podium players in the same three positions in back-to-back years.
4
Just four points separated winner 2019 winner Rapinoe with her USA team-mate, good friend and runner-up Alex Morgan. National team coaches and captains awarded five points for first, three for second and one for third, showing just how close it was.
1
Only one goalkeeper emerged triumphant from the 50 times FIFA has crowned The Best women’s or men’s player: Angerer in 2013.