It is time for our fifth edition of the best 100 female footballers in the world and here are the judges who took part in this year’s jury. Some of the most respected and influential women and men within the game, including the USA head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, the Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, and Canada’s Olympic-winning head coach, Bev Priestman. We are also privileged to have had the US soccer writer Grant Wahl, who tragically died while covering the men’s World Cup in Qatar this month, on the panel. Wahl was a tremendous journalist who did so much to promote women’s football despite his busy schedule and his impact on journalism and the women’s game will never be forgotten. He is part of our biggest jury yet with many new faces, taking the number of judges to 119, including the Brazil legend Sissi, Germany’s World Cup-winning defender Babett Peter, the Barcelona head coach, Jonathan Giráldez, and the Italy legend Patrizia Panico, now manager at Fiorentina, among many others. Their votes have been counted to see whether Alexia Putellas can become the first player to defend her crown or whether we will have a new Guardian best female footballer in the world. The countdown begins on Wednesday 21 December with Nos 100-71. On Thursday we will reveal Nos 70-41, on Friday Nos 40-11 before the top 10 on Saturday to complete this year’s list. The judges are listed in alphabetical order by category. Players Janni Arnth Former Denmark international with 93 caps; won four major domestic league titles across 3 countries Regina Baresi Former Italian striker who scored 108 goals in 208 matches for Inter Milano Marta Carissimi Former Italy international with 18 caps; won Serie A titles in 2015 and 2017 Arianna Criscione Former Italy international with three caps; won three consecutive Serie A titles with Torres Theresa Eslund Former Denmark international with 133 caps; won five Danish league titles and played in the Euro 2017 final Grace Gill Former Australia international with one cap; won two A-League titles with Canberra United Guðbjörg Gunnarsdóttir Former Iceland international with 64 caps; won six domestic league titles across Iceland and Norway Tuija Hyyrynen Former Finland international with 115 caps; won five consecutive Serie A league titles with Juventus Maia Jackman Former New Zealand international with 50 caps; played for her country at the 2007 World Cup Haley Kopmeyer Former NWSL goalkeeper; won two consecutive NWSL Shields with Seattle Reign in 2014 and 2015 Gina Lewandowski Former USA international with one cap; won the Champions League in 2008 and two Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich Ella Masar Former USA international with one cap; won the Bundesliga title with Wolfsburg in 2019 and two Swedish Cups with FC Rosengård Doreen Nabwire Former Kenya international who played professionally in the Netherlands and Germany; won the Kenyan Premier League in 2012 Babett Peter Former Germany international with 118 caps; won a World Cup, European Championship, a Champions League and eight Bundesliga titles Corine Petit Former France international with 89 caps; won 10 consecutive league titles with Lyon and five Champions League titles Nicole Rolser Former Germany international with two caps; won two consecutive WSL titles with Liverpool, in 2013 and 2014, and a Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich Jenny Ruiz-Williams Former Mexico international with 36 caps; represented Seattle Reign in the NWSL Desirée Schumann Former German goalkeeper; won the 2010 U20 World Cup with her country, three Bundesliga titles and two Champions League titles Sissi Former Brazil international with 47 caps and 33 goals; won the Golden Boot at the 1999 World Cup Leonne Stentler Former Netherlands international with 16 caps; won the Eredivisie title with ADO Den Haag in 2012 Coaches Fabrice Abriel Fleury 91 manager Juan Carlos Amorós NJ/NY Gotham manager Vlatko Andonovski USA head coach Natalia Arroyo Real Sociedad manager Colin Bell South Korea head coach Leah Blayney Australia youth team head coach Shilene Booysen South Sudan head coach Mariana Cabral Sporting Lisbon manager Freya Coombe Angel City FC manager Lluís Cortés Ukraine head coach Laura Del Rio Spain U23 head coach Nicola Demaine Former Papua New Guinea head coach Jonas Eidevall Arsenal manager Irene Fuhrmann Austria head coach Peter Gerhardsson Sweden head coach Jonatan Giráldez Barcelona manager Ann-Helén Grahm Tigres UANL assistant manager Richard Gunney Former San Diego Wave assistant manager Ásmundur Haraldsson Iceland assistant head coach Takayoshi Ishihara Former INAC Kobe manager Per Inge Jacobsen Stabæk manager Andrée Jeglertz Linköping manager Kim Kulig Wolfsburg assistant manager José Letelier Chile head coach Pedro López Mexico head coach Milagros Martínez Juarez manager Martin Masaryk Sparta Prague manager Theresa Merk SC Freiburg manager Amandine Miquel Stade de Reims manager Joe Montemurro Juventus manager Patrizia Panico Fiorentina manager Nina Patalon Poland head coach Kristine Pedersen Denmark youth team head coach Bev Priestman Canada head coach María Pry Madrid CFF manager Rick De Rooij PSV manager Cédric Roger Vietnam assistant head coach Matt Ross South Korea assistant head coach Angela Salem Washington Spirit assistant manager Chris Sargeant FC Nordsjælland manager Anna Signeul Finland head coach Tatiele Silveira Former Santos, Gremio and Brazil youth team head coach Renée Slegers FC Rosengård manager Kat Smith Western Sydney Wanderers manager Lars Søndegaard Denmark head coach Brian Sørensen Everton manager Alessandro Spugna AS Roma manager Alen Stajcic Philippines head coach Alexander Straus Bayern Munich manager Lene Terp Faroe Islands manager Randy Waldrum Nigeria head coach Jens Wedeborg IFK Kalmar manager Chan Yuen Ting Jiangsu manager Robert Vilahamn Häcken manager Beverly Yanez Racing Louisville assistant manager Media Abdullah Abdullah Freelance women’s football writer and analyst in the UAE; published two women’s football books Samuel Ahmadu Freelance women’s football writer in Nigeria Om Arvind Freelance women’s football writer and analyst in Spain David Astill Women’s football writer and analyst at Total Analysis in England Romain Balland Women’s football writer and broadcaster in France Annika Becker Freelance women’s football writer in Germany Alex Bishop Freelance women’s football writer in Japan Liana Buratti Digital content lead at Football Australia and former women’s football writer Isobel Cootes Women’s football writer for OPTUS Sport in Australia Javiera Court Arrau Women’s football writer in Chile Syanie Dalmat Women’s football writer for L’Equipe in France Seraina Degen Women’s football writer and broadcaster for SRF Sport in Switzerland Eileen Doeker Women’s football writer for Sky Sports Deutschland in Germany Cheryl Downes Co-founder and editor of Beyond 90 in Australia Mia Eriksson Women’s football writer in Sweden for TV4; co-host of Their Pitch Alex Ibaceta Women’s football reporter for DAZN Europe Harjeet Johal Freelance women’s football writer in Canada Meaghen Johnson Women’s football writer and producer for TSN in Canada Rachael Kriger Freelance women’s football writer in the USA Rich Laverty Freelance women’s football writer in England; Top 100 founder Sophie Lawson Women’s football writer for ESPN in England Gianluca Lia Women’s football writer for Malta Times in Malta Amber van Lieshout Women’s football writer for Vrouwen Voetbal Nieuws in the Netherlands David Menayo Women’s football writer for Marca in Spain Sofie Munch Women’s football writer and broadcaster for TV 2 Sport in Denmark Blair Newman Women’s football writer and analyst in the USA Antonio Loma Osorio Women’s football writer in Chile Christina Paulos Women’s football reporter for TV 2 Sport in Norway Annemarie Postma Freelance women’s football writer in the Netherlands Sandra Prusina Women’s football broadcaster and reporter in Canada Ameé Ruszkai Women’s football writer for Goal.com in England Romina Sacher Women’s football writer and reporter in Argentina Alicia Soares Women’s football writer in Brazil Megan Swanick Freelance women’s football writer in the USA Maria Tikas Women’s football writer for Diario Sport in Spain Joanna Tokarska Women’s football writer and reporter in Poland Hanna Urbaniak Women’s football writer in Poland Rivkah op het Veld Women’s football reporter for NOS Sport in the Netherlands Amanda Viana Women’s football reporter in Brazil Grant Wahl Freelance women’s football writer in the USA Julia Wanjeri Freelance women’s football writer in Africa; founder of JWSports Suzy Wrack Women’s football writer for The Guardian in England Ayishatu Zakaria Ali Women’s football writer ad reporter in Ghana Amanda Zaza Women’s football reporter for Tv4/Fotbollskanalen in Sweden; co-host of Their Pitch How they made their choices Our judges were sent a longlist of footballers drawn from leagues on every continent and asked one question: who have been the best female players in the world in 2021? We asked our judges to choose 40 names each, and rank their selection in order from 1-40, No 1 being their choice of the best player this year. How the voting works The No 1 choice of each judge was awarded 40pts, No 2 given 39pts, down to 1pt for their No 40 choice. All the votes were added together to give a raw score. To minimise the influence of outliers, the highest score awarded to a player was then deducted to give a final score. A player needed to receive votes from at least five judges to qualify. If players are level on points in the scoring, the number of individual votes cast is used as a tie-breaker. Voting disclosure We are very grateful to our judges for taking part, and none have been paid for participating. To allow our judges the freedom to express their opinions without fear or favour, individual voting records are anonymised.