The clock has hit 104 minutes, 14 minutes overtime. The score is 1-0; Spain has officially won the women’s World Cup!

In a very narrow victory over England, the Spanish national team had missed one penalty and saved a very last minute corner. However, the crucial 29th minute goal from team captain Olga Carmona ascended the Spaniards to success. 

“I’m very happy to give you this joy,” Carmona said during a speech. “The stars in the sky have accompanied us.”

The team and coaches are overjoyed, and the Spanish crowd is buzzing with excitement.

Though the entire team is jubilant over this triumph, one particular player, because of this win, is now regarded as one of, if not the best women’s football player to ever play the sport. 

Her name is Alexia Putellas, and she has now become the first ever woman to win a World Cup, Ballon d’Or Feminin (twice in a row!), and UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Despite this, some people consider Alex Morgan as the best women’s football player, though she is better regarded as the most influential player, thanks to her contributions to the U.S women’s national team (USWNT). Morgan’s goals won the USWNT the 2015 World Cup, 2019 World Cup, and 2012 Olympic gold medal. 

Yet, statistically, Putellas takes the crown of women’s football, even beating out Morgan in the FIFA Best Award.

To put this into perspective, only 9 men have ever done this, and considering how much older and more popular the men’s football events are than their female counterparts, this is extremely impressive.

For instance, the first men’s World Cup was held in 1930, while the first women’s World Cup wasn’t held until 61 years later, having a similar gap in time as the first Ballon d’Or and Ballon d’Or Feminin, being 62 years. The same goes for the UEFA Champions League, the first men’s Champions League was in 1995, meanwhile the women’s being in 2001. This gives men more time and opportunity to get all three awards.

All the accomplishments of women football players and records broken still don’t dissuade misogynistic comments from being made, usually on social media posts. These comments discredit women’s sports and regard them as less than men’s sports. Often comparing the achievements of women’s players to those of men to make them seem less important. 

The negative comments have been challenged by numerous football teams through statements, social media posts, and most interestingly, ads. Recently, the French women’s national team, Les Bleues, have released an advertisement in wake of the World Cup that pictures astonishing goals being scored by some of the most known names on the men’s national team. The ad plays on and soon rewinds to reveal that the viewer was, in fact, not watching the men’s team score beautiful goals, but instead the women’s team with AI tracking of the men’s faces and uniforms on the faces and bodies of the women’s players. 

These ads are released in hopes of silencing the awful comments left on posts or said in person by showing that the two games are still one in the same and are equally as exciting. 

In recent years, there has been a rise in football fans overall thanks to the World Cup, but the number of viewers of the men’s World Cup is disproportionately more than the women’s World Cup. Despite this, the 2023 Women’s World Cup has gained increased viewership and record crowd numbers. 

“I[‘ve] always wanted to play soccer, and while I’m not the most amazing at it, seeing how well these women work to get to where they are is truly inspirational and made me want to work even harder than I ever have,” Ainhoa Martino, a junior on the Olympic Heights soccer team, commented on how the increase in popularity in women’s football has helped her. “Plus, the more popular women’s football gets, the better access to resources young girls get,” she continued. 

The increase in interest for women’s football has no doubt inspired numerous young female football players to show that they too can one day achieve great things in the most popular sport the world has ever seen.