Tis the season for end of year lists!
We started the month off strong with The Guardian’s Top 100 Female Footballers of 2025, which saw 18 NWSL players be included, and now, we’re closing out the month (and year!) with ESPN’s version.
ESPN FC Top 50 women’s soccer players featured 11 NWSL players, including three in the top 10. The Current’s Temwa Chawinga came in highest at No. 5. Gotham’s Esther González moved up the most of any player who was featured last year, jumping 42 spots from No. 50 in 2024 to No. 8.
Rounding out the NWSL in the top 10 is Orlando’s Barbra Banda, who fell from No. 3 in 2024. That drop, in part, is because Banda spent much of the season on SEI. Despite missing the last few months of the season, Banda was still the Pride’s leading goal scorer at the end of the year, which is simply remarkable.
The Wave’s Delphine Cascarino, who came in at No. 18, and the Thorns’s Sam Coffey, who came in at No. 28, made their debut on the list this year.
ESPN’s list is the perfect gift to round out 2025 for NWSL fans. You can read ESPN’s entire list here.
No. 5 - Temwa Chawinga, Kansas City Current (2024 - No. 19)
No. 8 - Esther González, Gotham FC (2024 - No. 50)
No. 9 - Barbra Banda, Orlando Pride (2024 - No. 3)
No. 18 - Delphine Cascarino, San Diego Wave (2024 - No. 29)
No. 20 - Marta, Orlando Pride (2024 - No. 26)
No. 21 - Ann-Katrin Berger, Gotham FC (2024 - No. 25)
No. 28 - Sam Coffey, Portland Thorns
No. 32 - Rose Lavelle, Gotham FC (2024 - No. 44)
No. 35 - Sofia Cantore, Washington Spirit (First time)
No. 37 - Trinity Rodman, Washington Spirit (2024 - No. 8)
No. 49 - Debinha, Kansas City Current (2024 - No. 26)