Jill Ellis picks up Best FIFA Women's Coach award while Sari van Veenendaal wins Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper prize
Tuesday 24 September 2019 11:20, UK
Megan Rapinoe has been named the Best FIFA Women's Player ahead of USA team-mate Alex Morgan and England's Lucy Bronze.
She won the gong with 46 per cent of the ranking points, ahead of Morgan (42 per cent) and Bronze (29 per cent) while England striker and Bronze's team-mate Ellen White was voted 10th overall.
Rapinoe, 34, won the Golden Boot for most goals and Golden Ball for best player at the Women's World Cup earlier this summer after helping the USA win the tournament with six goals and three assists.
The USA co-captain, vocal off the pitch for gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights, delivered an impassioned speech upon collecting her award.
We have a unique opportunity in football, different to any other sport in the world to use this beautiful game to actually change the world for better. That's my charge to everyone, I hope you take that to heart and just do something, do anything. We have incredible power in this room
Rapinoe said: "If we really want to have meaningful change, what I think is most inspiring, would be if everybody other than Raheem Sterling and [Kalidou] Koulibaly, if they were as outraged about racism as they were.
"If everybody else was as outraged about homophobia as LGBTQ players. If everybody was as outraged about equal pay, or the lack thereof, or the lack of investment in the women's game, other than just women. That would be the most inspiring thing to me.
"We have incredible platforms. I ask everyone here, because I think everyone in this room probably has that crown that they're bearing, lend your platform to other people, lift other people up, share your success.
"We have a unique opportunity in football, different to any other sport in the world to use this beautiful game to actually change the world for better. That's my charge to everyone, I hope you take that to heart and just do something, do anything. We have incredible power in this room."
Bronze misses out after being named UEFA Women's Player of the Year last month - the first Englishwoman to win the award - and also won the Women's World Cup Silver Ball after helping the Lionesses reach the semi-finals.
The 27-year-old starred for England at right-back, playing every minute in all seven matches as they lost out to eventual champions USA in the last four.
Bronze, who has been with French club Lyon since 2017, also won the treble last season, lifting the Women's Champions League after a 4-1 win over Barcelona.
Morgan, meanwhile, also finished the World Cup with six goals and three assists for the USA, but missed out on the Golden Ball to team-mate Rapinoe by minutes-per-goal - and has now missed out on this award too.
The 30-year-old caused a stir with her tea-sip celebration against England in the semi-finals, being accused of disrespect, but she responded by claiming that there was a "double standard" for female players.
Earlier in the tournament, she became just the second woman in history to score five goals in one game when the USA thumped Thailand 13-0 for the biggest ever victory at the Women's World Cup.
1. Megan Rapinoe (USA)
2. Alex Morgan (USA)
3. Lucy Bronze (England)
4. Amandine Henry (France)
5. Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands)
6. Rose Lavelle (USA)
7. Julie Ertz (USA)
8. Ada Hegerberg (Norway)
9. Wendie Renard (France)
10. Ellen White (England)
FIFPRO Women's World 11: Sari van Veenendaal, Lucy Bronze, Wendie Renard, Nilla Fischer, Kelly O'Hara, Amandine Henry, Julie Ertz, Marta, Rose Lavelle, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.
