Michelle Akers

Michelle Akers is a former female American football (soccer) player who used to play in the 1980s and the 1990s. She has been noted by Pele as one of the top 125 greatest football players.

Michelle Akers played for the first ever US Women’s National team on August 18,1985 in a 1-0 loss to Italy and scored the first goal ever for them against Denmark three days later in a match that ended in a 2-2 draw.

Akers featured for the US national team at the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 in China and scored 10 goals, including an incredible 5 in one game. On June 7, 1998 she was awarded the FIFA Order of Merit.

Michelle Akers retired from football just before the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and is the US National Team’s second all-time leading scorer with 105 goals, 37 assists and 247 points.

In 2002 Michelle Akers was voted FIFA’s Woman Player of the Century along with China’s Sun Wen.