The tall, fearless New Yorker, Mary Abigail Wambach, more popularly known as Abby Wambach is the most dreaded player among the current pool of highly talented American team which is ranked 1st in the current FIFA Ranking. Born on 2nd June 1980 in Rochester, New York, Abbey has netted 117 goals at a blistering pace from 149 matches. Of the fourfootballers (Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Michelle Akers and Tiffany Millbrett)who have scored 100 goals for United States, Abby has taken the least number of matches. Her unquenched thirst for goals is so high that despite being injured and having received 11 stitches on the head, she not only played matches butscored 6 goals from 6 matches in 2007 Women’s World Cup.

She started her professional career with Washington Freedom in 2002. In the initial years of her illustrious career, she was believed to be a player who would not be able to perform consistently, but she proved her critics wrong. Her passion and dedication for the game is unparalleled as she even kept her studies on hold for the sake of football. For the love of the sport and awareness, she often takes partin exhibition matches played around the globe. Her contribution to United States Women’s National Team has unquestionably been the highest.

She displayed herfootballing potential while she was in University of Florida, Gainesville, where she played under Coach Becky Burleigh and earned honours like NCAA National Championship, the freshman All-American Awards. She holds the record for being the All-Time leading Scorer for Florida Gators’. She was player of the Conference Twice; she scored game winning goals 24 times and Hat Tricks 10 times. She was amongst the 20 players nominated for the FIFA Women’s World player of the year for 1996; however, she was unable to make it to the list of the finalists.

With the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal under her belt, she feels the team is more than ready for the onslaught and lift the prestigious FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy.She said, “The World Cup in Germany is our main target and we intend to be at peak form.”

Achievement:

2007 World Cup: She was honoured with the Golden Shoe Runners-Up.