11 of the best women footballers of all time

#3 Michelle Akers

Michelle Akers in action against Brazil in a 3-0 win in 1998

The FIFA Women's World Cup finally became a reality in the People's Republic of China in 1991. The Americans, however, were the ones to show real might as they won all three of their group matches and eased into the quarter-finals.

In the quarters, USA were even more ruthless and Chinese Taipei was at the sharp end of their attacks. The Americans scored seven times with Akers herself racking up a mind blowing five goals; a record that still stands today. A striker of the most lethal kind, Akers couldn't be afforded an inch's space. In the 1991 world cup final, the then 25-year-old American opened the scoring for the USA with a rollicking header and then followed it up with a match-winning goal with just 2 minutes to go when she cut past the goalkeeper, slid the ball across the goal line and slid right into the heart of the Americans and the history books.

Akers is as unyielding, determinate and tenacious as they come and is a relentless hard worker. But life proved to be no fairytale as things took a sharp u-turn when she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome in 1994 which is as career-threatening a condition for a footballer as they come. But instead of hanging up her boots and letting the nation spread her jersey from the rafters, the California-born striker stepped back onto the football field and occupied the heart of the midfield- shifting from being a lethal striker to an unrelenting defensive midfielder who stopped attacks like nipping flowers in their bud.

Akers, before the injury, was scoring at almost a goal per game and when she eventually retired, the persistent netfinder had a tally of 105 goals from 134 appearances. What is even more impressive is that the National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee espoused her new role with a vigor seldom seen and helped the USA to an Olympic gold in 1996 and World Cup triumph in 1999.

FIFA named her the female player of the 20th century; an award she shared with Sun Wen.

Michelle Akers represented Orlando Calibre School Club of Orlando and ended up as runner-up Women's Amateur National Cup Finals before playing 3 seasons with the Swedish Club Tyresö FF where she scored 43 goals in the 1992-93 season and became the leading scorer in Sweden, male or female, in the professional circuit.

Check out this video Michelle Akers scoring two goals in the 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals.