The soccer players with the most appearances in the Women’s World Cup tournaments

FIFA did not allow the first Women’s World Cup to be held until 1991, almost a century after the first official match.

The tournament in China was a milestone, but it is in stark contrast to modern football. Curiously enough, matches were concluded in 80 minutes, prompting US captain April Heinrichs to quip: “They were afraid if we played 90 minutes our bleachers might fall off.”

In the sadly young history of the official world championship, some players have managed to play well over 80 minutes over the course of several decades and be completely unscathed.

Here are the notable individuals who have competed in five or more world championships over the years:

Miraildes Maciel Mota, better known as Formiga, holds the record-breaking seven FIFA Women’s World Cup appearances – 10% of all matches in World Cup history have been played by the legendary Brazilian midfielder.

She emerged as the tournament’s oldest goalscorer for her national team at the age of 17, and was born at a time when it was still illegal for women to play soccer in Brazil. 234 caps and 29 goals in a 26-year career is quite an achievement.

Homare Sawa is considered one of the greatest Asian footballers of all time. Her impressive career spanned 24 seasons and 22 years with the Japanese national team, leading her to the 2011 World Cup finals and a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.

Sawa debuted in 1993 when she was just 15 years old. In her career, she earned 205 caps and scored 83 goals until her retirement in 2015, scoring the most matches and goals in Japanese football history for both genders.

Christine Lilly is one of the most recognizable names in the world of football. In her 23-year career, she became the all-time record player, playing 354 games for the United States women’s national team.

The 51-year-old has 130 team goals, the third-highest tally in USWNT history, having made her debut in 1987 while still in high school. By 1999, she passed the record for most appearances on the men’s and women’s national teams.

Lilly became the first woman and third player overall to appear in five different World Cup tournaments when she was a finalist in 2007.

Birgit Prinz is one of the most prolific strikers of all time and is the second highest scorer in the Women’s World Cup with 14 goals, having made her debut for the German national team aged just 16.

Between 1994 and 2011 Prinz made 214 appearances for Germany, scoring 128 goals. The 45-year-old is also a two-time world champion and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year.

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Kristi Pierce, also known by her married name Rampon between 2004 and 2017, completed 311 deployments to the United States from 1997 to 2015.

The three-time Olympic champion won two world titles at the end of her career and was the only American to compete, in 1999 and 2015.

The prolific striker, who has enjoyed a career playing in France, Germany, Sweden, the USA, Russia and South Korea as well as her native Brazil, has made 151 appearances for Brazil since 2003 and scored 96 goals.

In October 2017, Cristian was one of five Brazilian players to retire from international football due to poor pay and working conditions and the sacking of federation coach Emily Lima. She relented and agreed in February 2018 to return to the squad ahead of that year’s Copa America and eventually the 2019 World Cup.

Marta is one of the most recognizable names in women’s football and is often considered the greatest player of all time. It has been voted six times, including five consecutive years from 2006 to 2010, followed by a sixth vote in 2018.

Marta holds many records for Brazil, in both men’s and women’s football. With 115 goals in 174 matches, she became the tournament’s top scorer. She also holds the record for most goals scored in a FIFA World Cup, with 17 goals.

She became the first female soccer player of all genders to score in five World Cups – a feat later equaled by Kristen Sinclair (2019) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2022).

Along with Marta, Christine Sinclair is one of the football greats: she is the world’s leading goalscorer in women’s and men’s football. The most played international game (323 matches with Canada) has scored 190 goals on the world stage.

The 40-year-old, who made her debut in 2000 at the age of 16, will take part in the 2023 World Cup and could set new records there.

Onome Ebi is the first African footballer to have participated in five FIFA World Cups, completing the quintuple in 2019.

Since 2003, the 40-year-old has made 107 appearances and is also the captain of the Nigerian national team. Ibe is now approaching her sixth world championship this summer.