She was the founder, secretary and captain of the British Ladies Football Club, the first women's football club founded in 1894. The first meeting took place in Crouch End in 1895 in front of 12,000 people. A champion of women's rights off the field, she campaigned for women to be allowed to sit in Parliament and have a say in matters of public policy, especially those that most affected them. The “Honeyballers”: Women who fought to play football. Ready to be a Honeyballer?

Alice Milliat is an emblematic figure for the development of women's sport. Her favorite sport is rowing, which she practices at Femina Sport. President of the Fémina Sport club in 1915, she was one of the founders of the Federation of Women's Sports Societies of France in 1917. In 1919, she petitioned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to include women's athletics events in the next Olympic Games. However, her request was denied. She then decided to found the International Women's Sports Federation (FSFI) on March 21, 1921, and to create the first women's world games, the first edition of which took place in 1922 in Paris. The success of the second edition of the latter, organized in Sweden in 1926, was such that the IOC finally authorized women to participate in official events at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

In the 1990s, Mia Hamm was the most famous female soccer player on the planet, and one of the most famous athletes in the United States, due to the rise of women's soccer. She played as a forward or midfielder. She alone had 276 caps for the national team and 158 goals, was also the youngest player for the national team (at 15) and the youngest winner of a World Cup. In 2004, Akers and Mia Hamm were the only women named to FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living soccer players compiled by Brazilian great Pelé to celebrate FIFA's centenary. Since 2010, she has been an ambassador for FC Barcelona for the United States. "A lot of people say I'm the best women's soccer player in the world. I don't think so. And because of that, one day, maybe I will be." Mia Hamm.

A pioneer of women's football in France, Ghislaine Royer-Souef participated in the revival of women's football in the late 1960s. Her career began in 1968 as part of the annual tournament organized by the newspaper L'Union, where journalist Pierre Geoffroy had the idea of ​​​​forming a women's team. "This team was supposed to be temporary and disappear after this match. But Pierre was fooled, we never wanted to stop." “Sometimes, on the sidelines, boys would say nasty things like, ‘Go mend some socks!’ I didn’t care. I wasn’t there for feminism, but for the love of the game.”

Suzanne Liébrard, a true athlete and also an accountant by profession, played on all fields. Twice national champion in 1917 and 1918, she held the French record in five events. With her sister Jeanne and the Brûlé sisters, on July 27, 1912, they founded Femina Sport, a Parisian multi-sport club, one of the first to open a women's football section. In the 1920s, Fémina Sport was to football what Olympique Lyonnais Women's is today: sweeping up all the trophies in the French championship.

In 2002, Lily Parr was posthumously inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame in England, the first woman to be inducted. Lily stood almost six feet tall and scored nearly 1,000 goals over a three-decade career. In her first season for the Dick Kerr Ladies, she scored 43 goals. The local press wrote: "There is probably no greater football prodigy in the whole country." She was feared by every goalkeeper.

Annie Bataille, born February 17, 1952 in Enghien-les-Bains and died March 5, 2014 in Bayonne, was a French footballer who played as a central defender. She flourished during her 12 caps for the French national team between 1972 and 1978.

Michelle Anne Akers is a great American player, who played in the historic 1991 and 1999 Women's World Cup victories by the United States. She won the Golden Boot as the top scorer of the 1991 tournament, scoring 10 times in the competition. Did you know? In 2004, Akers and Mia Hamm were the only women named to FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers compiled by Brazilian great Pelé to celebrate FIFA's centenary. Since retiring from the USWNT in 2000, she has also continued to promote soccer as a spokesperson, advocate, and leader on various platforms.