Vivianne Miedema named the second best player in the world by The Guardian

Vivianne Miedema has been named as the second best female player in the world by The Guardian. Miedema, who was ranked 6th last year, finishes inside the top 3 for the first time in her career, behind Chelsea’s Pernille Harder, who finishes first for the second time. Miedema’s achievements need no introduction, but it does bear repeating that Miedema was not even a striker until relatively late in her development, in part because the Netherlands’ did not have a striker at youth level—a role that Miedema, more of a number 10, took.

Arsenal had eight other players named in the Guardian’s top 100 list:

2. Vivianne Miedema
28. Kim Little
32. Danïelle van de Donk
51. Caitlin Foord
59. Jill Roord
61. Leah Williamson
86. Jordan Nobbs
88. Lia Wälti
91. Beth Mead

Little and Williamson both moved up in the rankings, from 34th and 94th respectively. Van de Donk and Mead both fell from their 2019 rank, by sixteen and thirteen places respectively. After an injury hit 2018-19 season, Jordan Nobbs and Lia Wälti were re-entries into the list, while Caitlin Foord and Jill Roord turned their fast starts to the 2020-21 season into making the list for the first time.

With 9 players, Arsenal have the fourth overall most players in The Guardian’s list, with only Barcelona, Lyon, and Chelsea having more.