Do you watch women’s football? Our advice is to start now so that you won’t be called a glory hunter later. Women’s leagues matches in England, Germany, Spain, and France regularly attract between 5,000 and 15,000 fans, and teenage girls dream of following the path of Marta and Alexia Putellas. That’s why, before International Women’s Day, the global betting company 1xBet decided to tell the stories about the sportswomen who won fans’ hearts and revolutionized the football world.
Alexia Putellas: a captain who inspires girls
Recently, the Best FIFA awards ceremony was held in Paris. Barcelona players dominated the winners list: Leo Messi became the best player of the year in men’s football, and Alexia Putellas – in women’s. This is her second award after the Golden Ball.
Alexia was born in Mollet del Vallès, a small town in Barcelona agglomeration. At first, her career did not look like a yellow brick road – after a season in the Barça сantera, the club’s management decided that the 12-year-old girl’s play did not correspond to the Blaugranes level, so she went to Espanyol. Alexia did not give up, and at 16, she made her debut for the main women’s team of Parakeets. A few seasons later, her performance made the Barça coaches remember the rejected girl, and in July 2012, Alexia was signed to a long-term contract.
Putellas plays as a midfielder, but this does not prevent her from being the second top scorer in the Blaugranes women’s team history and the fourth player in Barcelona regarding the number of matches played. Like Messi, she is left-handed and shoots free kicks and penalties well. Besides, Alexia can compete for a high ball and scores a lot with headers. As part of the Catalan club, she won the Champions League, the Spanish Championship and the Queen’s Cup. Alexia also has an impressive personal awards collection: two years in a row (2021 and 2022), she became the owner of the Golden Ball, FIFA Player of the Year and UEFA Player of the Season.
According to voting results, she was ahead of her teammate AsisatOshoala, the first African female football player nominated for the Golden Ball.
If girls wanted to play like Beckham and Ronaldinho fifteen years ago, and their child-size T-shirts were the best-selling in club stores, now children are increasingly asking for T-shirts of Alexia Putellas and AsisatOshoala. After all, who said football is only for men?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oecn7YJZ0Dc
Wendie Renard: legend born at world’s end
At the FIFA ceremony, the symbolic women’s team of 2022 was defined, in which there was a place for Wendie Renard, the French national team’s famous football player and one of the best defenders in the world. She stands out on the field thanks to her confident game and 187 centimeters of height, so it is simply impossible not to notice her. The Frenchwoman is often compared with the Dutch defender of Liverpool, Virgil van Dijk – their playstyle is really very similar.
Wendie’s homeland is “The World’s End” – a town of Scholcher in French Martinique. Girls rarely played football there, but Wendie was different from others by her assertiveness. A simple passion quickly turned into a profession, and at 16, she was already playing for the French Lyon in front of thousands of fans, where the girl became a starter two years later.
With Lyon, Renard became the champion of France 15 times, won 9 national cups and lifted the Champions League trophy 8 times. An incredible game allowed her to become the French national team captain, and for 13 years, Wendie played 142 matches in Les Bleus. She is a legend, that’s it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaqqZORGjRU
Alex Morgan: writer in love with soccer
Alex is one of the most interesting personalities in women’s football, and in the US, only players like Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey can compete with her popularity. But, unlike the men, Alex won many European trophies.
Morgan spent her childhood in Diamond Bar, an eastern Los Angeles County city. There she played football, baseball and basketball, but at 14 finally decided to favor soccer.
Morgan plays as a center forward, has high speed, excellent technique and a rare ability to play equally well with both legs. These advantages helped her win the Olympics and the World Championship as part of the US national team. Having moved to Lyon, she succeeded in European club football, winning the Champions League, as well as French Championship and Cup.
Alex is also known as a children’s writer and author of The Kicks book series. There she tells about four American girls who play soccer and dream of becoming successful in the favorite game of millions. Morgan stated that her goal was to motivate American schoolgirls to play soccer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iCjhYdwua0
Sam Kerr: Aussie with gold contract
At the end of 2022, EA Sports showed the new edition cover of FIFA 23. Together with PSG player Kylian Mbappe, it depicts Chelsea Australian football player Samantha Kerr, who became the first woman on the FIFA cover.
Sam is one of Australia’s top sports stars. She is the first Australian female player to be nominated for the Golden Ball in the top 3 nominees, as well as to be in the top 3 best players in the world according to FIFA. In general, Sam is the icon of Australian football, GOAT and so on.
Samantha was born in the Australian town of Fremantle, spent most of her football career in Australia and the US, and moved to Chelsea at 26 – in 2019. Kerr scored 20 goals last season in the English Women’s Super League and became the league’s top scorer for the second time in a row. She also won three championship titles with Chelsea, and her goal in the FA Cup final brought the London club victory over Manchester City and another trophy.
Sam Kerr is the highest-paid player in women’s football, and her yearly salary is more than 500,000 euros. Impressive numbers, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcJ4Yg_L6Cw
Martha: Pele in skirts
We say – women’s football, we mean – Marta! We say – the Brazil women’s team, we mean – Marta!
The native of modest Dois-Riachos (a state in eastern Brazil) began her European career at 18 in Umea, Sweden. During the first five seasons in Scandinavia, the female forward scored 112 goals in the national championship, won 4 Swedish Сhampionships, and 3 times reached the final of the main women’s Eurocup at that time – the UEFA Cup.
In 2019, Marta reached a historic achievement. She became the first player to score in five World Cups – in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. Thanks to the goals against the national teams of Australia and Italy, the Brazilian first surpassed Ronaldo and then Miroslav Klose, becoming the most productive player in history (17 goals) in the men’s and women’s World Cups history.
Only two players in the world have been among the TOP-3 best players of the year for 11 (!) years in a row: Lionel Messi (2007-2017) and Marta Vieira (2004-2014). But if Leo and Cristiano have “only five” first places, then the Brazilian has six of them. No wonder she was given the nickname “Pele in skirts.”
Marta is already 37 years old. A few weeks ago, she returned to the field after a serious injury as a sub in the Brazil – Japan match in the Shebelieves Cup. And what? It took her only four minutes to give an assist to Debinha, who scored the only goal of that game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npr3H96U-A0
In our world, women who want to play sports professionally have to overcome stereotypes and fight for their rights. Twenty years ago, it was impossible to imagine that the women’s teams games would gather a significant audience, the largest sports media sources would write about them, and at the end of the year, the world’s best female football player would be awarded the Golden Ball – on the same stage and in the same hall with the best male player. Fortunately, the sport has changed, and we believe this is a change for the better – after all, hundreds of thousands of girls have been allowed to follow their dreams. That’s why a reliable bookmaker 1xBet supports women’s sports, equality of opportunity regardless of gender and is proud of the outstanding sportswomen’s achievements.
