FC Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas wins second consecutive Ballon d’Or; Germany’s Lena Oberdorf in 4th

FC Barcelona's Alexia Putellas has captured her second consecutive Ballon d’Or! The wonderful midfielder, whose cruelly-timed ACL injury knocked her out of the Spanish national team just before this summer’s European Championships, has once again been crowned the world’s best female footballer. Here’s her speech from France Football’s awards ceremony:

In fourth place is Germany and VfL Wolfsburg’s prodigious No. 6, Lena Oberdorf. At just 20 years of age, Oberdorf delivered one of the commanding performances of the tournament for a Germany team that charged all the way to the Final at Wembley.

Watch this space, because we might be referring to Lena as Ballon Oberd’Orf in the future!

Beth Mead (England / Arsenal FC) and Sam Kerr (Australia / Chelsea FC) round out the top three. Germany’s Alexandra Popp — another hero of the Women’s EURO this summer, and Oberdorf’s Wolfsburg teammate as well — made it to #6, while Ada Hegerberg (Norway / Olympique Lyon), the award’s inaugural winner, placed #7.

The top-placing USWNT player is Lyon’s Caterina Macario, and the only two NWSL players to make the top 20 were Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC) at 13th and Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit) at 18th.

No Bayern Munich player made the top 20 — though perhaps a better run in the Champions League this year (Lyon were eventual champions) will help the cause for the likes of Lina Magull, Georgia Stanway, Lea Schüller, and others!