Italy: Cristiana Girelli

The Italian women’s national team, despite all the country’s history in the men’s game and having been one of the first nations to embrace women’s soccer, has never been a dominant force on the world’s stage. 

Cristiana Girelli would like to change that. 

Spain: Mapi León

At the age of 22, Mapi Leon entered the history books when Barcelona prized her away from Atletico Madrid for $56,000, making Mapi the first paid transfer in the history of Spanish women’s football. In her first season, Barcelona celebrated a Queen’s Cup triumph and the club subsequently made its first-ever appearance in the Champions League final this campaign.

Mapi immediately catches the eye with her defensive ability, but also because of her love for tattoos, including one across her throat that says ‘looks can be deceiving.’ 

Germany: Alexandra Popp 

On the pitch, Germany captain Alexandra Popp has done it all. The 28-year-old striker is a five-time Bundesliga champion with Wolfsburg, a three-time Champions League winner and an Olympic gold medalist with her national team. 

The two-time German Footballer of the Year has always stood apart, be it her time spent at an elite school of football in Gelsenkirchen on a special permit as the facility’s sole female pupil to her training with junior players at men’s side Schalke 04. Obviously Popp isn’t afraid to step into difficult situations.

France: Wendie Renard

Wendie Renard grew up in Martinique, an overseas region of France in the Caribbean, where she was always playing soccer with the boys, using goal posts made of shoes and kicking anything that would roll, from balls to plastic bottles. 

It was rare for girls to play soccer in Martinique, but Renard’s family — particularly the women — pushed her to play, especially after her father died to cancer when she was 8. Her aunt was a referee; her mother never turned down an opportunity to watch a match. 

Norway: Caroline Graham Hansen

Norway is home to the best player in the world, Ada Hegerberg. But she won’t be playing for the her country at the Women’s World Cup this summer. Hegerberg has quit the national team to make a statement against unequal treatment for women footballers in Norway, despite the fact the country became the first ever to pay their men and women equally. 

Australia: Sam Kerr

These days, there are few players in the world who inspire terror in opposing defenses like Australia’s Sam Kerr. 

And Kerr very nearly didn’t even play the sport in which she is now one of the best in the world.

Kerr grew up playing the male-dominated sport of rugby. 

Eventually, the boys she played with and against decided they didn’t want to get tackled by a girl, so she had to switch to a different sport — and every opposition defender at this summer’s Women’s World Cup will wish she had just stuck to rugby.

Brazil: Marta

To be honest, if you don’t know Marta by now, you haven’t been paying attention for the last 10 years. 

Named the world player of the year six times — and runner-up another five — Marta is arguably the best footballer of the last 15 years, if not all time. 

But she’s yet to get her team a major international title, and she’s out to change that this year. 

Brazil has dominated South American women’s soccer, winning seven of eight Copa Ámericas. The one time the Seleção didn’t win, in 2006, Marta did not play. 

If you missed yesterday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup final between the USWNT and the Netherlands, no worries. The above video by YouTube account My Funny Games Builder will get you up to speed, including the passion and pageantry of the anthems, the VAR-induced drama, the goals, and ultimately, the USWNT holding aloft the trophy.