FIFA World Cup Records and Statistics: FIFA Women's World Player of the Year

Between 2001 and 2015, FIFA Women’s World Player of the year was awarded every year to women player by football governing body FIFA. In year 2016, FIFA replaced this award with The Best FIFA Women’s Player. The selection criteria involved choosing of women football player with best performance and a good conduct. These players were chosen by:

Coaches and captains of national teams.
International media representatives

The positional voting system was also used, and players were allotted points accordingly. Based on these points, finalists were ranked from 1st to 3rd every year. The youngest women player to earn this honour is Marta Vieira da Silva, a Brazilian who won at age 20 in year 2006. She bagged the award successively for next four years also. The oldest recipient of this award is Nadine Angerer, who won in 2013 when she was 35. The other women players who achieved this FIFA accorded award belonged to Germany, America, Brazil and Japan. Birgit Prinz, a German football player secured the first rank back-to-back from 2003 to 2005. Mia Hamm, an American player has bagged the award twice.

Here is the list of players who won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the year from year 2001 to 2015:

Rank	Name of Player	Points	Name of Team
2001
I	Mia Hamm	154	Washington Freedom
II	Sun Wen	79	Atlanta Beat
III	Tiffeny Milbrett	47	New York Power
2002
I	Mia Hamm	161	Washington Freedom
II	Birgit Prinz	96	FFC Frankfurt
II	Birgit Prinz	96	Carolina Courage
III	Sun Wen	58	Atlanta Beat
III	Sun Wen	58	Shanghai SVA
2003
I	Birgit Prinz	268	FFC Frankfurt
I	Birgit Prinz	268	Carolina Courage
II	Mia Hamm	133	Washington Freedom
III	Hanna Ljungberg	84	Umeå IK
2004
I	Birgit Prinz	376	1. FFC Frankfurt
II	Mia Hamm	286	Washington Freedom
III	Marta	281	Santa Cruz Umeå IK
2005
I	Birgit Prinz	513	FFC Frankfurt
II	Marta	429	Umeå IK
III	Shannon Boxx	235	Ajax America Women
2006
I	Marta	475	Umeå IK
II	Kristine Lilly	388	KIF Örebro DFF
III	Renate Lingor	305	1. FFC Frankfurt
2007
I	Marta	988	Umeå IK
II	Birgit Prinz	507	FFC Frankfurt
III	Cristiane	150	VfL Wolfsburg
2008
I	Marta	1002	Umeå IK
II	Birgit Prinz	328	FFC Frankfurt
III	Cristiane	275	VfL Wolfsburg
2009
I	Marta	833	Umeå IK
II	Birgit Prinz	290	FFC Frankfurt
III	Kelly Smith	252	Boston Breakers
2010
I	Marta	38.20%	FC Gold Pride
II	Birgit Prinz	15.18%	1. FFC Frankfurt
III	Fatmire Bajramaj	9.96%	1. FFC Turbine Potsdam
2011
I	Homare Sawa	28.51%	INAC Kobe Leonessa
II	Marta	17.28%	Western New York Flash
III	Abby Wambach	13.26%	magicJack
2012
I	Abby Wambach	20.67%	Unattached
II	Marta	13.50%	Tyresö FF
III	Alex Morgan	10.87%	Seattle Sounders
2013
I	Nadine Angerer	18.85%	Brisbane Roar
II	Abby Wambach	15.02%	Western New York Flash
III	Marta	14.02%	Tyresö FF
2014
I	Nadine Angerer	17.52%	VfL Wolfsburg
II	Marta	14.16%	FC Rosengård
III	Abby Wambach	13.33%	Western New York Flash
2015
I	Carli Lloyd	35.28%	Houston Dash
II	Célia Šašić	12.60%	1. FFC Frankfurt
III	Aya Miyama	9.88%	Okayama Yunogo Belle

The decision of awarding is based on choices of national coaches and captains around the world. This accounts for 50 percent of the choosing process. The other 50 percent is about voting and decision from Media representatives, selected by FIFA. In short, players, coaches, captains, public, media representatives all take part in result. FIFA Women’s World Player of the year is synonymous with a women player’s position on the pitch and sporting brilliance.

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