Will an American woman ever again be the world's best player?

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  Jeff KassoufOct 26, 2026, 06:24 AM ET

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  Jeff Kassouf covers women's soccer for ESPN, focusing on the USWNT and NWSL. In 2009, he founded The Equalizer, a women's soccer news outlet, and he previously won a Sports Emmy at NBC Sports and Olympics.

U.S. women's national team midfielder Rose Lavelle laughed when reminded that she is the only U.S. international on the 30-player shortlist for the 2026 Ballon d'Or Féminin. "I always feel really lucky with the wealth of talent that I've been able to play with in this country, both on the national team and in the club environment," Lavelle told ESPN during the most recent USWNT training camp earlier this month, deflecting the praise that comes with the best player award.

Lavelle deserves her place on the list after a standout year with the USWNT and with Gotham FC, including the winning goal in the 2025 NWSL Championship. As talented as she is, however, she is a long shot to win the award Monday.

The world order has shifted from the United States in decades past to Europe. Spain's 2023 World Cup title was the tipping point. What's more, the Ballon d'Or award is also structured around the European calendar, which splits the NWSL's season in half.

It all begs the question: When will a U.S. player -- or even someone playing outside of Europe -- again win either the Ballon d'Or or FIFA Best award (separate awards that typically produce the same results)?

The answer? Not likely anytime soon.

"Listen, it's no surprise," retired U.S. international Crystal Dunn told reporters earlier this month. "I think the Ballon d'Or does skew a little bit more towards European players, right? It's been a talking point, we all, we all understand this."

Dunn said that, right now, the award "is not inclusive of every player, but we all understand that. That's kind of how the world really is sometimes."

Change to individual award winners also mirrors the shift in world power at a team level. Spain is the undisputed No. 1 team on the planet. Spain reaffirmed that status with a recent win and draw in a two-games series with the second-ranked USWNT.

Spain's collective success is attributed to the country having the globe's richest pool of world-class players. It's a pool that is now much deeper than that of the United States when it comes to world-class players.

A Spanish player has won each of the last five Ballon d'Or and FIFA Best awards heading into Monday -- Alexia Putellas twice, followed by a three-peat for Aitana Bonmatí. The USWNT never had that kind of run at its peak.

Megan Rapinoe was the last U.S. winner of the Ballon d'Or or FIFA Best award in 2019, when the U.S. won its most recent of four World Cups and Rapinoe dominated the tournament. Alex Morgan's second-place finish in the 2022 FIFA award is the only top-three appearance by a U.S. international since for either award.

Carli Lloyd won FIFA's award in 2015 for her Golden Ball performance at that year's World Cup, which the U.S. won. She won the award again in 2016. Mia Hamm (twice) and Abby Wambach were the other Americans to be named the world's best before Lloyd. And two-time World Cup winning U.S. international Michelle Akers was jointly named FIFA's Player of the Century in 2000, before FIFA even gave women an annual award of excellence.

All those awards came during or slightly after U.S. World Cup or Olympics victories (Hamm's being slightly delayed from the United States' 1999 World Cup triumph because women didn't have an award).

However, standout performances in those international tournaments are no longer enough to win the title of world's best player. The technically gifted and tactically astute Spanish players are the new standard of excellence in the eyes of much of the world, particularly the voting pool for these awards. Europe -- often presented as a monolith, but really meaning the top countries such as Spain, England, France and Germany -- has a stranglehold on individual awards.

American forwards Sophia Wilson, Lindsey Heaps, Mallory Swanson and Trinity Rodman finished fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth, respectively, in Ballon d'Or voting in 2024 after they helped the U.S. win a fifth Olympic gold medal. The fourth-place Wilson received roughly one-third of the votes cast for Bonmatí, who won the award.

There was no grave injustice there either: Bonmatí was then and is now the easy, logical answer as the world's best player when healthy. (She has been injured most of the past year and is not nominated after winning three straight FIFA Best and Ballon d'Or awards.)

But that 2024 award also shockingly omitted U.S. defender Naomi Girma from the 30-player shortlist despite being one of the best defenders in the world at the time and a major part of the USWNT's Olympic victory (as well as the San Diego Wave's 2023 NWSL Shield, which was part of the voting window).

Was a lack of recognition for defenders to blame? Was it because she is American? Was it pure negligence from the screening committee? ("Yes" is the catchall answer.)

USWNT head coach Emma Hayes pointed out Girma's omission at the time along with noting the disrespect of presenting the award during a women's international break, when many players could not attend the ceremony. She wisely reminded everyone not to take individual awards too seriously.

"I mean, it'd be like running an Oscars or a Golden Globes, without having any females present," Hayes said.

Rodman is another U.S. international deserving of inclusion in this year's shortlist. Ashley Sanchez is also having an MVP-caliber season in the NWSL but only just returned to the international level after two years without a U.S. call-up. Lavelle being the sole U.S. representative is no surprise. Lavelle's crafty, entertaining skill set mirrors that of top Spanish players -- exactly the type of player voters appreciate.

This isn't just a U.S. issue, either -- there are more egregious omissions outside of Americans.

Malawi and Kansas City forward Temwa Chawinga broke the NWSL scoring record with 20 goals in 2024. She won the Golden Boot and MVP awards in one of the two most difficult leagues in the world (England's WSL the other) and didn't even make the 30-player shortlist that year. Chawinga won the Golden Boot and MVP awards again in 2025 in equally impressive fashion and got nominated but finished 17th.

Haiti midfielder Melchie Dumornay finished immediately below Chawinga in 2025, and she even plays for eight-time European champions OL Lyonnes.

Other than Polish forward Ewa Pajor, who plays for Barcelona, the entire top 11 for the 2025 Ballon d'Or was Spanish and English players who also played for Barcelona in Spain or for clubs in England.

Monday's results are likely to mirror that trend. If the U.S. can win the 2027 World Cup, the trend could reverse next year. But that task is harder than ever after the U.S. flamed out in the round of 16 in 2023.

An American winning the Ballon d'Or, despite the talent in the U.S. player pool, feels far less likely to happen again soon.