2023 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: 40+ RECORDS THAT COULD BE BROKEN!

Marta (Brazil) could extend her record for the most individual goals scored, Hege Riise (Norway) could become the first person to win as a coach in Women’s World Cup  after winning player of the year, Casey Phair (South Korea) will most likely become the youngest player to ever play, while Vanina Correa (Argentina) will become the oldest goalkeeper…

To see the full list of 40+ potential records that could be broken in 2023, please have a look below.

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The FIFA World Cup kicks off on the 20th of July!

INDIVIDUAL RECORDS

• Vanina Correa (Argentina) will break the record for the oldest goalkeeper if she plays as she is supposed to – the current oldest goalkeeper who played in the Women’s World Cup is Meg (Brazil), who was 39 years and 159 days old when Brazil played against Germany in 1995 – Correa will turn 40 in August

• Casey Phair (South Korea) will break the record for the youngest player to play in Women’s World Cup if she plays as she is supposed to – the current youngest player holding the record is Ifeanyi Chiejine (Nigeria), who was 16 years and 35 days (including the match date)  when Nigeria played against South Korea in 1999; Phair turned 16 at the end of June and she will be 16 years and 27 days on the 25th of July (including the match date), which is the first scheduled match of South Korea in this year’s World Cup, playing against Morocco

• Marta (Brazil) and Christine Sinclair (Canada) could extend their record as the players (male or female!) who scored in the most World Cup tournaments (both had scored in 5 tournaments)

• Marta (Brazil) could extend her record as the player (male or female!) with the most individual goals scored in the World Cup if she scores in 2023 – she has scored 17 goals, her last one being a penalty against Italy in 2019, leading to 1-0 win for Brazil

• Christine Sinclair (Canada) will extend her record as the captain playing the most World Cup tournaments (5 including 2023)

• Hege Riise, Norway’s head coach, could become the first individual to win as a coach in the Women’s World Cup  after winning the player of the year “Golden Ball” award in the past (Riise won player of the year in 1995, and she is coaching Norway in 2023)

• 6 players are currently tied for the most appearances in World Cup Final (3) – this record could be extended by Alex Morgan & Megan Rapinoe if they will play for USA in this year’s final

• Megan Rapinoe (USA) or Marta (Brazil) could become the first player to win player of the year “Golden Ball” trophy twice if one of them wins the award in 2023 (Rapinoe won in 2019, Marta won in 2007)

• Megan Rapinoe (USA), Alex Morgan (USA) or Marta (Brazil) could become the first player to be the top scorer at the Women’s world cup twice if one of them manages to do so in 2023 (Rapinoe and Morgan tied for “top scorer” in 2019 and Marta was the top scorer in 2007)

• Onome Ebi (Nigeria) or Christine Sinclair (Canada) could extend their record as the player with the most matches lost in Women’s World Cup (10 matches lost) – they are currently tied for this record alongside Florence Omagbemi (Nigeria), who is not playing this year

• If any player scores 11 times, they would break the record currently held by Michelle Akers (USA) for the most goals during one tournament who scored 10 times during the 1991 Women’s World Cup

• If any player scores 6 times, they would break the record for the most goals scored during one match currently held by Michelle Akers (USA) and Alex Morgan (USA) who both scored 5 goals – Akers in 1991 against Taipei and Morgan against Thailand in 2019

• Any of the older players could break Formiga’s record for the oldest goalscorer (37)

TEAM RECORDS

USA

• USA team could extend their record (4 wins) as the country with the most wins at the World Cup (they won in 1991, 1999, 2015 & 2019)

• USA could break their tie with Germany as the country that won the most World Cups in a row (Germany had two consecutive wins in 2003 & 2007, USA tied them with their consecutive wins in 2015 & 2019)

• USA could break their tie with Germany as the defending champion with the most wins in the following year (both Germany and USA defended their title once,USA might defend their title for the second time in 2023)

• USA could join Germany as the only defending champion to not get past the quarter-finals

• USA could extend their record for the most goals scored in a tournament if they score 27 or more goals in 2023 – in 2019 they broke their tie with Germany (25 goals) when they scored 26 times

• If USA ended up taking the bronze medal for the 4th time, they would break their tie (3) with Sweden as the team with the most bronze medals

• Depending on their placement, USA could extend their current records of most finishes in the top 2 (5 times), top three (8 times), top four (8 times), top eight (8 times)

• USA could extend their record for the total number of wins (40) as well as the most goals scored (138)

• USA could extend their record for most consecutive wins (12 wins since 2015 match against Nigeria) and most consecutive matches without a loss (17 wins/draws since 2011’s match against Brazil) in the World Cup

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

• Australia or New Zeleand could become only the second team ever to win the Women’s World Cup as a hosting country- Australia & New Zealand are co-hosting this year, both teams are playing, and the only team that ever won the tournament the same year that they were hosting was the USA team in 1999

• Australia or New Zealand could join China (1991, 2007), Sweden (1995),Germany (2011), Canada (2015) & France (2019) as the hosts with the worst finishes – none of these teams got past quarterfinals in their respective hosting years

• After playing 5 times, New Zealand could make it to the top 8 for the first time

SWEDEN

• Sweden could join USA as the only team to ever win all three “medals” – bronze, silver & gold – USA has 4 golds, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals, Sweden has 3 bronze medals and 1 silver medal, they have yet to win the gold

• If Sweden ended up taking the bronze medal for the 4th time, they would break their tie (3) with USA as the team with the most bronze medals

NETHERLANDS

• If Netherlands wins, they would join Norway and USA as the only defending runner-ups to win the following World Cup

NIGERIA

• After playing 8 times, Nigeria could make it to the top 4 for the first time

• Nigeria could extend their record for the total number of losses (19) as well as the most goals conceded (63)

NORWAY

• If Norway wins, they would break USA’s record  (16 years) for the longest gap between successive titles since Norway won last time 28 years ago in 1995

ITALY

• Italy currently holds the record for the longest gap between appearing in the top 8 – at the inaugural Women’s World Cup, they placed 6th and they have not made it into top 8 since then – if they miss again, they will extend their record to 31 years gap

CHINA

• China could extend their record for the most draws (7)

BRAZIL

• Brazil could extend their record for the most cautions in the World Cup of all time – 55

OVERALL RECORDS

• If any of the following teams place second, it would mark the first time ever that a country places second in Women’s World Cup for a second time – USA, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Brazil, China, Netherlands

• At the moment, USA and Germany are tied for being the top-scoring teams in the most World Cups (3 times each, USA – 1991, 2011, 2019 & Germany – 2003, 2007, 2015) – either of them could break the tie and become the sole holder of the record

• There are 8 teams debuting at this year’s Women’s World Cup (Philippines, Vietnam, Morocco, Zambia, Panama, Haiti, Portugal, Republic of Ireland) – any of those could join the USA as the only team to win during their debuting year (bearing in mind that the first time that USA won was the inaugural year of the tournament)

• Any of the following countries (that had already debuted in the past) could win their first match ever: Argentina, Costa Rica, Jamaica, South Africa, New Zealand

• This year’s world cup could become the most attended women’s sporting event ever, judging from the ticket sales, which would surpass the record currently held by Women’s World Cup 2019: France attended by 1.131 million people

PAST RECORDS WORTH MENTIONING

• Oldest player ever to play in the World Cup – Formiga (Brazil), who was 41 years, 112 days old

• Biggest margin of victory win record belongs to USA, who won 13-0 against Thailand in the 2019 World Cup

• Most own goals scored in a match – Angie Ponce (Ecuador) scored 2 own goals in a match against Switzerland in 2015

• Fastest goal scored – Lena Videkull (Sweden) scored after 30 seconds in 1991’s match against Japan

• Player with the most matches won is Kristine Lilly (USA, 24 matches won), player with the most draws is Sun Wen (China, 5 matches ending in a draw)

• Formiga (Brazil) played the most tournaments out of all the players – 7

METHODOLOGY

• The records were collected from the official website of FIFA as well as the respective Wikipedia pages of all the tournaments in past Women’s World Cups (1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019) and they were extensively fact-checked through various sources