Naomi Girma becomes first pure defender to win U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year Award

CHICAGO – In a year in which she was one of the USA’s best players at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and was the National Women’s Soccer League Defender of the Year, helping San Diego Wave FC win the NWSL Shield as regular season champions, defender Naomi Girma has been voted the 2023 U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year.

Girma is the first pure defender to win the award in the 39 years it has been given out. Goalkeeper Hope Solo won in 2009 and defensive midfielder Julie Ertz won in 2017 and 2019, but all the other winners have been attacking-minded midfielders or forwards.

This is the first U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year award for Girma. She becomes the 20th different player to win the award in its 39-year history. Girma also becomes just the sixth player to win both U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year (which she won in 2020) and U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year, joining Sophia Smith, Lindsey Horan, Julie Ertz, Tobin Heath and Lauren Cheney Holiday.

(Olivia Moultrie honored as 2023 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year)

The 23-year-old Girma is heading into just her third professional season and third year on the full National Team. At the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, her first world championship at the senior level, she was one of the USA’s best and most consistent players, marshalling a defense that allowed just one goal and a total of two shots on goal over the four matches. She finished the year third on the USWNT in minutes played and started all 16 games she played, helping lead the U.S. defense to its lowest ever goals against average (0.17 goals allowed per game) in a calendar year (minimum 10 games played).

“I’m honored and grateful to be the first defender and second Black player to win this award, but it’s really a testament to all the hard work put in by our goalkeepers, the back line and our whole team to achieve an historic year for our defense,” said Girma. “We are all very connected, work hard on the field, watch a lot of film to get better and really take pride in stopping teams from scoring. I always want to thank my friends and family, because they’ve been with me on every step of this journey. My coaches and teammates for club and country are the people who have helped shape me into the person and player I am today, so I’m very thankful to all of them. I’m super excited for what’s to come and can’t wait to get started here in 2024.”

For the second time, fans were able to vote for the U.S. Soccer Player and Young Player of the Year Awards with those votes weighted at 15% of the total. Of the five finalists for the Female Player of the Year Award, Girma garnered 61.6 percent of the overall tabulated votes followed by midfielder Lindsey Horan (23.2%).

Votes for U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year and Young Female Player of the Year awards are collected from respective National Team coaches, National Team players who earned a cap in 2023, members of the U.S. Soccer Board of Directors, U.S. Soccer Athletes’ Council, National Women’s Soccer League head coaches and select media members and administrators.

Twenty-three of the 26 U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year winners have earned caps with the full USWNT and 15 of them have gone on to play in a FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year has been awarded since 1985, when midfielder Sharon Remer earned the first Female Player of the Year honor. Abby Wambach won it six times, the most of any player. Mia Hamm won it five times.

The all-time winners for both awards are below.