The world’s second best women’s national team according to FIFA Women’s World Rankings features no players in the Guardian top 100 female footballers list in its top 20. In fact, the best American on the list is Emily
Fox at no. 24. while eight other Americans join her. The no. 1 team, Spain, has five players in the top 10 and six in the top 20. Meanwhile, at no. 3 Germany has one player in the top 20 with England sitting in 4th with five players in the top 20. Clearly, FIFA has the USA much higher ranked than its talent level as the British publication demonstrated aptly.
The USWNT is in good company. Looking at the men’s list the second best male team, Argentina, has just one player in the top 20. As the saying goes, second place is first loser and the defending World Cup champions join the defending Olympic gold medalists earning the distinction of FIFA not accurately ranking their talent levels as reflected by the British publication’s list. As for the American men, no Americans made the list because Christian Pulisic is not as good at Antoine Griezmann who sits at no. 100.
On one hand, its difficult to argue with at least some of the implications of the list for the American women. The USWNT hasn’t had a major international competition this year, the Champions League is more competitive than the NWSL where most of the USWNT plays, and a number of star players for the team did not play for significant parts of 2025. On the other, the voters were largely based in Europe and it does seem like there’s some disconnect between the FIFA rankings and where Americans ranked in the Guardian list.
Outside of Pulisic, and possibly Antonee Robinson, it’s difficult to gripe about the USMNT players’ absence from the list. That assessment does suggest something about the team and how its talent measures up to the rest of the world. Quite simply, the American men have not caught up to the most competitive international teams.
To be sure, the side that will go to the World Cup in 2026 will be the most talented that has ever taken the field but they will have to play above their level to advance past sides they may face in the knockout rounds like Belgium, Spain, and France to reach the final. As far as expectations, beating any one of those teams in a World Cup would be the best showing in the tournament since 2002 and beating two would be historic.
For both teams, there is ground to cover for the USWNT to stay ahead of their competition and for the USMNT to catch up. At the very least, the lists convey a certain sentiment about the talent in the US program overall.
