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:
More specifically:
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 457 players. The Republic of Ireland is the most represented nation with 45 players. Tanzania was the most recent nation to be newly-represented when Aisha Masaka made their WSL debut playing for Brighton & Hove Albion on 8 November 2024 against Arsenal.
Continent refers to the corresponding continental confederation of the player's nationality.
Rank | Confederation | Players | Nations |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Europe (UEFA) | 293 | 25 |
2 | North America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) | 63 | 5 |
3 | Asia (AFC) | 59 | 5 |
4 | Oceania (OFC) | 17 | 2 |
5 | South America (CONMEBOL) | 14 | 4 |
6 | Africa (CAF) | 11 | 6 |