It is a ground-breaking moment for EA SPORTS FC Team of the Year with a Women’s XI due to be named for the first time, and we are proud to announce that four Chelsea Women stars are included in the inaugural nomination list.
Blues fans can vote for their favourites to make the first-ever EA SPORTS FC Women’s Team of the Year and here we tell you how you can do so, and recap reasons why Sam Kerr, Millie Bright, Guro Reiten and Niamh Charles have made the shortlist.
After an incredible 2023 on the pitch, you can turn our nominated quartet into TOTY XI winners with the voting window open now and closing on Monday 15 January at 7.59am UK time.
The winners will be unveiled and the team available in EA SPORTS FC 24 on Friday 19 January.
Sam Kerr
It would barely be possible for Sam Kerr to carry together all the accolades she won in 2023. In addition to the domestic double of trophies collected by the team as a whole, towards winning which she as ever played a very major part, the star striker became the first to be handed the Football Writers’ Association Women’s Footballer of the Year prize twice in a row, added to by the FA WSL Player of the Year trophy at the London Football Awards and a place in the PFA’s WSL Team of the Year.
Notably, she finished second in the running for the Women’s Ballon d’Or and was in third place in the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year vote.
Kerr swept up Chelsea Women’s Player and Players’ Player of the Season honours and among her numerous goals was one against Manchester United which was voted WSL Goal of the Month. She was Player of the Match in the FA Cup final win over the same side after scoring the winner.
Having chalked up her 100th Chelsea appearance last season, Kerr ended the campaign as club top scorer with 29 goals and is again leading the way in 2023/24.
On the international stage, she was able to take great pride in captaining Australia at a World Cup they jointly hosted, with her goal in the semi-final against England nominated for FIFA's Puskas Award.
Unfortunately, Kerr's 2024 started badly when she sustained an ACL injury during a warm-weather training camp.
Millie Bright
Millie Bright joined Sam Kerr in achieving highly at both international and club level in 2023. Having skippered England at the World Cup in late summer, she was then named the new Chelsea captain ahead of the current season, a natural progression for the club’s longest-serving player.
With the Lionesses, history was made, with progress to the World Cup final for the first time. Prior to that, she had been a key cog in Chelsea’s successful quest for a fourth consecutive WSL title and third straight FA Cup triumph before injury brought a premature end to her 2022/23 season. Happily, Bright recovered in time to lead England. She was 11th in the voting for the prestigious Women's Ballon d'Or.
This season the defender reached the milestone of 250 Chelsea Women appearances and marked the occasion perfectly by opening the scoring in a big win. To cap it all, she was awarded an OBE in the King's New Year Honours list.
Guro Reiten
No player made more appearances as Chelsea again won the Double in 2023. Guro Reiten’s superb form meant she played in all but one of the games last season and she was the only Blue to start every FA Cup game.
As well as creating countless chances with her creative attacking play, Reiten weighed in with 13 goals of her own, a total second only to Kerr, and she kept her nerve to score twice from the penalty spot. No one came close to matching her for assists.
She became well-acquainted to Player of the Match awards during the year and featured in the PFA’s WSL Team of the Year and in the top 20 in the poll for the 2023 Women's Ballon d'Or.
Reiten was described as being ‘in the form of her life’ when her goal won an away Champions League leg against traditional powerhouse Lyon, and she followed that up by scoring away against eventual winners Barcelona. This season she struck a last-gasp equaliser at Man City.
For Norway she played every minute of their World Cup campaign and scored twice. No wonder Chelsea handed her a new contract at the end of the year.
Niamh Charles
The ultra-versatile Niamh Charles is the only player who can match Guro Reiten for the number of games she featured in during the WSL- and FA Cup-winning campaign, and she has continued that on by starting every match in this season so far.
It has been a productive 14 games in 2023/24, with four assists and two goals as Chelsea top the WSL and our Champions League group at the mid-season point.
Most recently Charles headed an equaliser away against Real Madrid having the same month completed a 6-0 rout at Aston Villa with her goal.
Among Charles’s four strikes in the Double-winning campaign were another header against her former side Liverpool and an opener against West Ham on her 100th Chelsea appearance, both victories coming during the run-in to the league title. Her defensive contribution has been important too.
England came calling when they named their 2023 World Cup squad and Charles made her major tournament debut in a victory over China and played in the semi-final win over Australia.