FIFA (International Association Football Federation) presented FIFA Women’s World Player of the year award annually to international women football players from year 2001 to 2015. The players belonged to various countries around the globe and were shortlisted by coaches and captains of national associations and by international media representatives.
Between 2001 and 2015, Sports governing body FIFA awarded Women’s World Player of the year every year to women players from various countries for their best sporting performance over the previous year. FIFA replaced this award with The Best FIFA Women’s Player in year 2016. The result was partially based on choices of national coaches and captains around the world. The other 50 percent choosing process was based upon positional voting and decision from Media representatives, selected by FIFA. Players, coaches, captains, public, media representatives were part of decision of ranking the finalists from 1st to 3rd.
Mia Hamm is the first-ever recipient of the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award who received the award in 2001. The youngest recipient of this award is Marta Vieira da Silva, a Brazilian. She was ranked first successively for five times from year 2006 to 2010 and also got second and third rank in various years. The oldest women player to earn this honour is Nadine Angerer. She is a german football player 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 has won the award thrice. Homare Sawa (Japanese player), Nadine Keßler (German player), Carli Lloyd (American player) have won the award in year 2013, 2014 and 2015.
The below table contains the details of women player and their respective ranks in the FIFA Women’s World Player. It also contains the information of number of times a particular player has won and their corresponding years.
| Name of the Women Player | Rank 3 | Rank 2 | Rank 1 |
| Marta | 2 (2004, 2013) | 4 (2005, 2011, 2012, 2014) | 5 (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) |
| Birgit Prinz | — | 5 (2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) | 3 (2003, 2004, 2005) |
| Mia Hamm | — | 2 (2003, 2004) | 2 (2001, 2002) |
| Abby Wambach | 2 (2011, 2014) | 1 (2013) | 1 (2012) |
| Homare Sawa | — | — | 1 (2011) |
| Nadine Angerer | — | — | 1 (2013) |
| Nadine Keßler | — | — | 1 (2014) |
| Carli Lloyd | — | — | 1 (2015) |
The prestigious award was honoured to outstanding players of football association. A shortlist of players was prepared by a FIFA technical board and then voted on by a selection of media representatives. FIFA Women’s World Player of the year judges on the basis of:
- Women player’s position on the pitch
- Playing Performance.
This award was received by eight women players between years 2001 and 2015. 3 women winners were from Germany, 1 from Brazil, 3 from United States, and 1 from Japan. Marta Vieira da Silva has won the honour maximum number of times. Nadine Angerer is the women goalkeeper who has won the said prize in year 2014.
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