All 100+ Gay Players and Coaches in the 2023 Women’s World Cup

Women’s World Cup gay players feature image photos: SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images // Erin Chang/ISI Photos/Getty Images // James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is finally here! It kicks off on July 20th with co-hosts Australia (against Ireland) and New Zealand (against Norway)! And you, of course, are wondering if there are any Women’s World Cup gay players. Friends, yes! In fact, this just might be the most openly queer sporting event in history — which is saying something, as you know, if you’ve been following our WNBA coverage this year.

And not just players; there are so many LGBTQ storylines to follow. It’s Megan Rapinoe’s (United States) final World Cup. It’s 37-year-old Marta’s (Brazil) sixth World Cup, and her last, and she continues to recover from an ACL tear she suffered in a NWSL Challenge Cup match. After becoming the first first Australian player to score a hat trick at a World Cup tournament in 2019, and becoming a household name among soccer fans and queer humans, Sam Kerr is looking to lead the co-host Matildas to a World Cup title. Canada, which boasts five queer players and coaches, is in an equal pay fight with its governing body, much like the one the USWNT battled for years. Also, Matilda Sam Kerr and USWNT star Kristie Mewis are probably the most famous couple of this World Cup, thanks in part to THEY’RE LESBIANS, STACEY.

The 2023 World Cup goes from July 20th through August 20th. It’ll be held in ten stadiums and nine cities, split almost evenly between Australia and New Zealand. The time difference is mind-bending: From the US east coast, Melbourne is 14 hours ahead and Auckland is 16 hours ahead. From the US west coast, Melbourne is 17 hours ahead and Auckland is 19 hours ahead, so: basically fully a whole day the future. In the United States, the World Cup will air on FOX, FS1, FOXSports dot com, and the FOX Sports App.

And now, onto the Women’s World Cup gay players! They’re listed below, sorted first by their World Cup Group and then by their country. As always, if we’ve missed anyone, please let us know in the comments!

Groups for 2023 Women's World Cup: Group A New Zealand Norway Philippines Switzerland Group B Australia Republic of Ireland Nigeria Canada Group C Spain Costa Rica Zambia Japan Group D England Haiti Denmark China PR Group E USA Vietnam Netherlands Portugal Group F France Jamaica Brazil Panama Group G Sweden South Africa Italy Argentina Group H Germany Morocco Colombia Korea Republic

GROUP A

New Zealand

Michaela Foster

Annalie Longo

Ria Percival

Hannah Wilkinson

Norway

Frida Maanum

Maren Mjelde

Guro Reiten

Anja Sønstevold

Ingrid Syrstad Engen

Philippines

Tahnai Annis

Switzerland

Ramona Bachmann

Head Coach Inka Grings

Inka Grings, Head Coach of Switzerland, poses during the official FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 portrait session on July 16, 2023 in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Photo by Matthew Lewis – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

Alisha Lehmann

Noelle Maritz

Lia Wälti

GROUP B

Australia

Mackenzie Arnold

Ellie Carpenter

Alex Chidiac

Caitlin Foord

Katrina Gorry

Alanna Kennedy

Sam Kerr

Teagan Micah

Hayley Raso

Kyah Simon

Emily van Egmond

Cortnee Vine

Tameka Yallop

Republic of Ireland

Isibeal Atkinson

Diane Caldwell

Megan Connolly

Sinead Farrelly

Sinead Farrelly of Republic of Ireland poses during the official FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 portrait session on July 15, 2023 in Brisbane, Australia.

Photo by Cameron Spencer – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images

Ruesha Littlejohn

Katie McCabe

Grace Moloney

Áine O’Gorman

Louise Quinn

Lucy Quinn

Canada

Kadeisha Buchanan

Head Coach Bev Priestman

Quinn

Kailen Sheridan

Shelina Zadorsky

No gays we know (yet?): Nigeria

GROUP C

Spain

Teresa Abelleira

Ivana Andrés

Irene Paredes

Alba Redondo

Costa Rica

María Paula Elizondo

Gabriela Guillén

No gays we know (yet?): Zambia, Japan

GROUP D

England

Lucy Bronze

Jess Carter

Rachel Daly

Bethany England

Lauren Hemp

Jordan Nobbs

Denmark

Pernille Harder

Janni Thomsen

No gays we know (yet?): Haiti, China PR

Group E

United States

Kristie Mewis

Kelley O’Hara

Megan Rapinoe

Netherlands

Kerstin Casparij

Daniëlle van de Donk

Stefanie van der Gragt

Merel van Dongen

Sherida Spitse

Jacintha Weimar

Lynn Wilms

Portugal

Dolores Silva

No gays we know (yet?): Vietnam

Group F

France

Pauline Peyraud-Magnin

Constance Picaud

Brazil

Adriana

Andressa

Bárbara

Debinha

Kathellen

Lauren

Letícia Izidoro

Marta

Head Coach Pia Sundhage

Tamires

Jamaica

Becky Spencer

No gays we know (yet?): Panama

Group G

Sweden

Filippa Angeldahl

Hanna Bennison

Nathalie Björn

Magdalena Eriksson

Jennifer Falk

Lina Hurtig

Caroline Seger

Linda Sembrant

South Africa

Thembi Kgatlana

Kaylin Swart

Italy

Lisa Boattin

Manuela Giugliano

Elena Linari

Argentina

Lorena Benítez

Vanina Correa

Julieta Cruz

Yamila Rodríguez

Vanesa Santana

Group H

Germany

Ann-Katrin Berger

Sara Doorsoun

Svenja Huth

Lena Oberdorf

Felicitas Rauch

Lea Schüller

Head Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg

Morocco

Rosella Ayane

Colombia

Linda Caicedo

Daniela Montoya

Leicy Santos

No gays we know (yet?): South Korea

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Related:

Natalie

A black biracial, bisexual girl raised in the South, working hard to restore North Carolina's good name. Lover of sports, politics, good TV and Sonia Sotomayor. You can follow her latest rants on Twitter.

Natalie has written 418 articles for us.

77 Comments

  5. I admit I am surprised there are only 3 out folks on the US team. There might be others who aren’t out or questioning or whatever. But then I went down the roster and this is one of the cishet-er rosters the US has had in a while. That is neither good or bad but kinda interesting. I love the teams with 6-8 (or more!) out queers like Brazil, AUS, etc.

    I do feel badly for the folks on teams where there is strong resistance to people being out. That must be rough. We know you all are out there and we’re rooting for you too!

    Reply to This Comment

  6. Thanks for this. What a list… so sporty, fit and fine. And queer!

    I’m always surprised that even though there are so many openly out players, so few of them have short hair. I make it around 10%. Why is that?

    Surely it would be easier to play without the annoying ponytail (I state boldly, as a relatively recent short hair convert).

    Although even with longer hair there is sooo much queer energy leaping out of these pictures. I’m excited to watch as much of the world Cup as I can manage.

    Reply to This Comment

    • I’m excited too! Unfortunately the game starting times don’t work well for people outside Australia/NZ, so I probably won’t be watching most of the games live. But online streams can still be watched at a later point :-)

      As for the long hair thing, I guess the players just get used to having a ponytail swinging around their heads? (Disclaimer: this is coming from a softball player who’s had short hair for several years and even when I wore it longer, was able to tuck it partly under my cap or batting helmet, which football players obviously don’t wear.)

      PS. There’s also the opposite of long haired gay players: Germany’s Paulina Krumbiegel (pictured) who afaik is straight ;-)

      Reply to This Comment

      • Thanks Ingrid! I love learning about Linda Caicedo…she’s one of the young players I’m most excited to see play in the WWC. Can you believe that this will be her third World Cup in the last year? Unreal.

        (Also: funny enough, Caicedo doesn’t have a lot of pics on her Instagram that aren’t soccer/family related so I was like…”hmmm, I don’t know.” But then I remembered that she’s 18 and I had to go to Tiktok for the confirmation I was after.)

        Reply to This Comment

  12. Thank you for your service to the community, this list is amazing. (Outsports only listed 87 out players/coaches, clearly they need to step up their social media sleuthing game.)

    This WWC is tough for US fans – so many queer ladies but such a big time difference! (Says the woman, aka me, who woke up at 4am to watch women’s soccer matches during the Olympics. More than once.)

    Reply to This Comment

      • If I didn’t have a day job I would be up at all hours to watch, but alas. I do plan to wake up at 6am tomorrow to watch AUS vs IRL. No shade to NZ vs Norway, but 3am on a work day is pushing it.

        Reply to This Comment

  14. Thank you for this list, Natalie! A few questions:
    1. Do we have confirmation on Shelina Zadorsky and Rosella Ayane? If so, please let me know. I must have missed that.
    2. Is Vivianne Miedema not playing for the Netherlands for this World Cup?

    Reply to This Comment

  18. Thank you for your exhaustive work in compiling this list!

    Australia vs. Ireland is maximum football and drama. Littlejohn and McCabe of Ireland split recently and rumors are that McCabe is now with Foord (of Australia).

    If we’re counting Zadorsky and Ayane, who never publicly confirmed either, I think it’s fair to put Sinclair on there. Keira Walsh should be on there for England. Neither she nor Bronze ever really confirmed but Walsh was recently linked with a German player (Laura Feiersinger)

    Couples on two different national teams:
    Harder-Eriksson
    Kerr-Mewis
    Carpenter – van de Donk
    Carter-Berger
    Bjorn-Galli

    Reply to This Comment

  19. Despite these lists including her for years now, I still have never seen where exactly Lucy Bronze has ever come out or talked about her sexuality. Wikipedia says nothing about it either last time I checked.

    Reply to This Comment

    • Yeah, I’ve never seen any public acknowledgment ever. Articles about her have talked about the fact that she is assumed to be with Walsh, but neither of them ever publicly confirmed their relationship.

      Reply to This Comment

    • Even stranger, while the lists have always included Bronze, they still avoid mentioning Walsh! But maybe we’re so used to them being private, that if they have been more open, we’re not noticing how open?

      Reply to This Comment

  22. I was at the Spain v Costa Rica game last night and me and my gf used this great handy article to educate ourselves. We thought including the jersey number would enhance the gay spotting no end. Probably too much of a retrospective ask, maybe next time!

    Reply to This Comment

  25. I’m pretty sure Clare Polkinghorne is also gay (and out) – there’s a Star Observer article which mentions it.

    Also, I want to mention two out gay players who are Matildas (Australian national players) but unfortunately just missed out on selection due to a bad run with injuries/recovery:
    1) Chloe Logarzo
    2) Emily Gielnik

    Damn the Matildas are the best 😂 💛💚

    Reply to This Comment

  26. I just wanted to share for some countries it may be best to not include players based on the fact it may put them in danger of harm or criminality in their home countries. I’m especially thinking about Morocco. Or at least a line at the top that not all players can be included out of their own safety, especially if they haven’t shared the fact that they’re out directly on social media.

    https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/07/reporter-slammed-for-asking-moroccan-soccer-player-if-she-has-gay-teammates/

    Reply to This Comment

  28. As a Dad of a gay daughter it’s just so inspiring to see all these wonderful women. These super athletes who are doing just wonders for not only young gay girls but all girls and young boys as well. Hopefully they will help to change the views of the many who have probably not had much to do with gay people and carry on old misguided views.

    Reply to This Comment

Contribute to the conversation...

Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated by the guidelines laid out in our comment policy. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation and thanks for stopping by!