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List of foreign Women's Super League players

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Women's Super League (WSL) is the highest league of women's football in England. The league, which started in 2011, was divided in two separate divisions (WSL 1 and WSL 2) from 2014 with the latter rebranded as the FA Women's Championship following a restructure in 2019; only the WSL 1 is considered in this list. The following players must meet both of the following two criteria:

  1. Have played at least one WSL game. Players who were signed by WSL clubs, but only played in lower leagues, cup games and/or European games, or did not play in any competitive games at all, are not included.
  2. Are considered foreign, i.e., outside United Kingdom determined by the following:
A player is considered foreign if they are not eligible to play for the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

More specifically:

  • If a player has been capped on international level, the national team is used; if they have been capped by more than one country, the highest level (or the most recent) team is used. These include British players with dual citizenship.
  • If a player has not been capped on international level, their country of birth is used, except those who were born abroad from British parents or moved to the United Kingdom at a young age, and those who clearly indicated to have switched their nationality to another nation.

Clubs listed are those for which the player has played at least one WSL game. Seasons are those in which the player has played at least one Women's Super League game. Note that seasons, not calendar years, are used. Until the end of the 2017 spring series, seasons were aligned with calendar years and therefore one year may be listed. Beginning with the 2017–18 season, seasons were played across two years. For example, "2017–22" indicates that the player has played in every season from 2017–18 to 2021–22, but not necessarily every calendar year from 2017 to 2022. Therefore, a player who debuted during or after the 2017–18 season should always have a listing of least two years – for instance, a player making their debut in 2019, during the 2018–19 season, will have '2018–19' after their name despite not playing in 2018. Similarly, a player making their debut in 2019, during the 2019–20 season, will have '2019–20' after their name but this does not necessarily mean they played in 2020.

In bold: players who are currently under contract by a WSL club. For each country, the leading appearance-maker is indicated by the number of matches that they played in the Women's Super League as of the end of the 2023–24 season.

47 different nations have been represented in the WSL by 500 players. The Republic of Ireland is the most represented nation with 45 players. Algeria was the most recent nation to be newly-represented when Inès Belloumou made her WSL debut playing for West Ham United on 12 September 2025 against Arsenal.

As of 6 December 2025.

Africa (CAF)

Algeria

Cameroon

Equatorial Guinea

Ghana

Morocco

Rosella Ayane has the most WSL appearances of any African player with 97. A former England youth international, she made her Morocco debut in 2021.

Nigeria

Tanzania

Asia (AFC)

Australia

Caitlin Foord became the first Australian to play in 100 WSL games, reaching the milestone on 12 September 2025.

China PR

In 2021, Tang Jiali became the first Chinese national to play in the WSL.

Japan

South Korea

Ji So-yun made 124 appearances and won six WSL titles with Chelsea.

Syria

Europe (UEFA)

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Czechia

Denmark

Following a world record fee move, Pernille Harder played three seasons in the WSL, winning the title with Chelsea in all three.

Finland

France

Kenza Dali is France's leading WSL appearance maker.

Germany

Ann-Katrin Berger won the golden glove in Chelsea's 2020–21 title-winning season with 12 clean sheets.

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Dagný Brynjarsdóttir is Iceland's leading appearance maker in the WSL and was named West Ham United captain in 2022.

Italy

Kosovo

Malta

Netherlands

Vivianne Miedema scored 80 WSL goals in 106 appearances for Arsenal, winning two consecutive golden boots 2018–20.

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Republic of Ireland

Katie McCabe won one WSL title with Arsenal and was named in the 2020–21 WSL Team of the Year.

Russia

Serbia

Slovenia

Spain

Ona Batlle was named to back to back WSL Team of the Year teams 2021–23.

Sweden

Magdalena Eriksson made 104 league appearances for Chelsea, winning the WSL title five times.

Switzerland

Lia Wälti is Switzerland's leading WSL appearance maker.

Türkiye

North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF)

Canada

Shelina Zadorsky is Canada's leading WSL appearance maker.

Dominican Republic

Jamaica

Khadija Shaw won the WSL golden boot during the 2023–24 season, scoring 21 goals in 18 games.

Saint Lucia

United States

Sam Mewis was named to the 2020–21 WSL Team of the Year during her only season in the WSL.

Oceania (OFC)

New Zealand

New Zealand international Ria Percival has made 73 WSL appearances, the most of any OFC player.

Samoa

South America (CONMEBOL)

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Mayra Ramírez joined Chelsea for a world-record fee in 2024.

Venezuela

Deyna Castellanos

Summary

By nationality

More information Rank, Nation(s) ...
Rank Nation(s) Players
1 Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland 46
2 Sweden Sweden 45
3 Netherlands Netherlands 39
4 United States United States 34
5 Australia Australia 33
6 Norway Norway 31
7 Germany Germany 29
8 Spain Spain 27
9 Denmark Denmark, Japan Japan 26
11 France France 25
12 Canada Canada 19
13 New Zealand New Zealand 16
14 Finland Finland 14
15 JamaicaJamaica 13
16 Switzerland Switzerland 11
17 Belgium Belgium 9
18 Brazil Brazil, Nigeria Nigeria 7
20 Austria Austria, Iceland Iceland 6
22 Portugal Portugal, South Korea South Korea, Colombia Colombia 5
25 China China 4
26 Poland Poland, Italy Italy 3
28 Chile Chile, Czech Republic Czechia, Ghana Ghana, Morocco Morocco, Serbia Serbia 2
33 Algeria Algeria, Bulgaria Bulgaria, Cameroon Cameroon, Dominican Republic Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, Greece Greece,
Hungary Hungary, Kosovo Kosovo, Malta Malta, Russia Russia, Saint Lucia Saint Lucia, Samoa Samoa, Syria Syria, Tanzania Tanzania, Turkey Türkiye, Venezuela Venezuela, Slovenia Slovenia,Ivory Coast Ivory Coast
1
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By continent

Continent refers to the corresponding continental confederation of the player's nationality.

More information Rank, Confederation ...
Rank Confederation Players Nations
1 Europe (UEFA) 318 25
2 Asia (AFC) 69 5
3 North America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) 66 5
4 Oceania (OFC) 17 2
5 South America (CONMEBOL) 14 4
6 Africa (CAF) 12 6
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Notes

  1. ^
    Born in Afghanistan
  2. ^
    Born in Uruguay
  3. ^
    Born in Brazil
  4. ^
    Born in Canada
  5. ^
    Born in China
  6. ^
    Born in England
  7. ^
    Born in France
  8. ^
    Born in Germany
  9. ^
    Born in New Zealand
  10. ^
    Born in Scotland
  11. ^
    Born in Sweden
  12. ^
    Born in Spain
  13. ^
    Born in United States
  14. ^
  15. ^
  16. ^
  17. ^
  18. ^
  19. ^
    Capped for the England U18s
  20. ^
  21. ^
  22. ^
  23. ^
  24. ^
  25. ^
  26. ^
  27. ^
  28. ^
  29. ^
  30. ^
  31. ^
  32. ^
  33. ^
  34. ^
    Currently loaned outside of the WSL

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