Alyssa Naeher

Alyssa Naeher's biggest save arrived with the whole tournament on the line. In the 2024 Paris Olympic final against Brazil, with the United States leading 1-0 deep into extra time, she threw out a hand and turned away a shot to keep the gold medal intact. Five years earlier she had done something similar in the 2019 World Cup final, holding firm behind a 2-0 win over the Netherlands. Between those two moments sits a career built on being the one left standing when everything else has been decided.

Naeher's route to the top took her through Germany before it settled at home. Between 2011 and 2013 she played for Turbine Potsdam, winning the Frauen-Bundesliga in the 2011-12 season, then returned to the United States with Boston Breakers. In 2015 Boston traded her to Chicago Red Stars in exchange for Whitney Engen, a move that gave her the club she still plays for. At Chicago she has since set the NWSL record for career saves, become the first goalkeeper in league history to reach 150 matches and 15,000 minutes played, and recorded 50 wins with a single club, also a league record.

With the national team, she made 115 appearances between 2014 and 2024, starting 110 of them, and became only the third USWNT goalkeeper to pass 100 caps. She won the World Cup in 2019 and Olympic gold in 2024, adding an Olympic bronze in 2020. In the 2023 World Cup she became the first goalkeeper, male or female, to both score and save a penalty at the same tournament. Her individual honours followed in 2024, when FIFA named her goalkeeper of the year and US Soccer its player of the year; a decade earlier, in 2014, the NWSL had already named her its goalkeeper of the year. Her international story began even earlier, in 2008, when she won the U-20 World Cup with the United States and took home the Golden Glove.