Aitana Bonmatí makes Guardian top 100 history with third straight title | OneFootball

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

As the Top 100 approaches a decade since its inception, nobody has quite dominated an era like Bonmatí and, while 2025 did not end in major silverware on the European stage, there were moments of sublime brilliance on the way to a Champions League final as well as the Euro one with Spain.

Bonmatí, as the very best do, has become a figure who can step up when needed most, and has become synonymous with the Blaugrana Barcelona stripes, a one-club woman with over 300 appearances in all competitions for the Catalan giants. Catalonia born and bred, both her parents were teachers of the Catalan language, with Bonmatí’s life and career intertwined with the region since she was a child, and now she has become an icon not just at home, but all around the world.

In a time where the women’s game is growing exponentially and world class talents are queueing up to dethrone the midfielder, she remains at the top. However, having broken a leg in training before the Nations League final she will miss more than four months of 2026. She will be sorely missed.

It was a tighter margin of victory in 2025, 453 points ahead of compatriot Mariona Caldentey – compared to 568 last year ahead of Caroline Graham Hansen – with the Spanish duo plus Alessia Russo and Putellas all gaining over 4,000 points from our record panel of 143 judges.

Bonmatí received 43% of the No 1 votes, ahead of Caldentey with a 21% share. Russo and Putellas both had 8% of the first picks in third and fourth respectively.

In a year where England backed up their Euro 2022 success with victory in Switzerland, Brazil continued their dominance in South America and Nigeria regained supremacy in Africa, it was all change across the top 100 as players such as Caldentey, Russo, Hannah Hampton, Temwa Chawinga, Patri Guijarro, Ewa Pajor and Clàudia Pina all made a new-look top 10 for the first time.

The Barcelona starlet Pina was the biggest mover, up 65 places on 2024, followed by another Spaniard in Gotham FC striker Esther González, up 59, while Klara Bühl moved up 40, just ahead of Russo’s 39 to propel the Arsenal striker into the top three.

Ghizlane Chebbak gave Morocco a first ever entry into the top 100 and Canada’s new Northern Super League was represented in its first year thanks to the Nigerian striker Esther Okoronkwo of AFC Toronto.

In fact, almost a quarter of this year’s 100 were brand new faces, emphasising just how fast the women’s game is growing, with the Chelsea and England shot-stopper Hampton the highest of the new names, shooting straight into the top five after her Euro-winning performances, while Vicky López, Sofia Cantore, Nathalie Björn and Michelle Agyemang all made the top 50.

Performances on the continental stage earned first-time appearances for the likes of Okoronkwo, Brazil’s Amanda Gutierres and Nigeria’s Gift Monday, while potential stars of the future such as Olivia Smith, Lily Yohannes and Signe Gaupset ranked for the first time. Mexico’s Charlyn Corral gained long overdue recognition.

Others made their way back into the 100, such as the Arsenal and England duo Leah Williamson and Chloe Kelly after a trophy-laden 12 months while Sandy Baltimore and Cristiana Girelli also made returns straight into the top quarter.

Lucy Bronze, Wendie Renard and Pernille Harder remain the only three players to have maintained a place every year after Saki Kumagai and Jenni Hermoso dropped out for the first time and it was Bronze’s Chelsea who dethroned Barcelona as the team with the most representatives with 15 compared to Arsenal’s 14 and Barcelona’s 12 after a domestic treble for Sonia Bompastor’s side.

Unsurprisingly after another Euro success, England pip Spain as the nation with the most players, 14 to 13, followed by the USA and France with nine each, while Copa América winners Brazil move into the top five for the first time with five players of their own.

The Women’s Super League asserts its dominance with 39 players on the list, up 12 from 2024, ahead of the NWSL with 19 and Liga F with 16. Players such as Jess Park, Aoba Fujino, Mary Fowler and Maya Le Tissier just missed out.

The young and old were once again represented at either end of the spectrum, with Marta again the oldest representative, the 39-year-old playing a key role in Brazil’s Copa América success with a dramatic late goal in the final against Colombia to keep their hopes alive. The OL Lyonnes and USA superstar Yohannes is the youngest at 18 and one of three teenagers to rank alongside López and Agyemang.

But it is again Bonmatí who ranks above them all, asserting her authority as one of the greatest of the modern era.

Header image: [Photograph: Álex Caparrós/Uefa/Getty Images]