The Global Game: WNFC and the Rise of International Participation in Women’s Football

By the time the final whistle blew in the 2025 WNFC season, the numbers told one story: 44 international players from 19 countries, the largest global footprint in league history. But the stat sheet only scratches the surface.

What really happened this season was the next chapter in the global rise of women’s football, a story that’s unfolding in locker rooms from Toronto to Mexico City, Helsinki to Madrid, and in cities most people couldn’t find on a map.

What started as isolated pipelines in Canada, Mexico, and Northern Europe is now a network: flag and tackle programs building confidence and skill at home, then sending their best to test themselves at the highest level of women’s football in the U.S.

This is what that looked like up close.

Canada: A Pipeline That Produces Pros

In Canada, women’s tackle football has been a national program for over a decade. The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team has reached the gold medal game in multiple IFAF Women’s World Championship since the event began in 2010. The country’s women’s flag football team is just as fierce. Bronze medalists at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu and now firmly in the top three of the world powerhouses.

It’s no coincidence that Canadian talent is finding its way into the WNFC. Darcy Leslie of the Kansas City Glory, a 1st Team All-Pro linebacker, brought her national team pedigree and finished the season with 38 tackles.

Headliners:

• Brynn McNabb (Las Vegas Silver Stars),1st-Team All-Pro WR, plus a rushing terror (322 rush yds, 9.8 YPC, 3 TD).

• Harmine Christina Leo (Jersey Shore Wave), 1st-Team All-Pro DB, league-best 8 pass deflections, and a punt-return TD.

• Kassidi Wynter (Mississippi Panthers), 1st-Team All-Pro DL; disruptive every week.

• Alia Karmali (San Diego Rebellion), versatile scorer (4 total TD), plus spot snaps at QB (also tossed a TD).

  
  

The Canadian cohort:

• Shannon Delarosbil (Denver Bandits) 

• Harmine Christina Leo (Jersey Shore Wave)

• Brynn McNabb (Las Vegas Silver Stars) 

• Alia Karmali (San Diego Rebellion) 

• Bre Ward (Seattle Majestics) 

• Kassidi Wynter (Mississippi Panthers) 

• Pamela Larde (Atlanta Truth)

Mexico: From Flag Dominance to Tackle Power

Mexico’s flag dynasty turned into a tackle pipeline, and 2025’s WNFC box scores read like confirmation. Mexico’s women’s flag football program is now vying for the #1 ranking in the world, after winning back-to-back World Games titles, adding 2025 gold in Chengdu to their 2022 triumph. The country’s tackle team announced itself on the world stage in 2017, winning bronze in its IFAF debut.

That investment is producing WNFC stars. Regina Escoto Macias of the San Diego Rebellion pounded out 448 rushing yards and six touchdowns, earning 1st Team All-Pro honors. Her teammate Alia Karmali added four receiving touchdowns, giving San Diego a one-two punch few defenses could solve.

In Mexico, the path is becoming clearer: dominate at the national level, then test yourself in the WNFC, where the speed, skill, and physicality are unlike anything else in the women’s game.

2025 WNFC Mexico Players:

• Headliners:

  • Regina Escoto (San Diego Rebellion), 1st-Team All-Pro RB, 448 rush yds, 6 TD, the downhill engine of San Diego’s offense.

• Paulina Lopez (Seattle Majestics), 1st-Team All-Pro LB, the heartbeat of a fast, physical front seven.

The Mexican cohort:

• Greys “GG” Bernal (Chicago Winds)

• Joselyn Lazaro (Denver Bandits) 

• Alexandra Fabela (Denver Bandits) 

• Ivette Garcia (Las Vegas Silver Stars) 

• Daniela De La Garza (San Diego Rebellion) 

• Regina Escoto (San Diego Rebellion)

• Ana Barbosa (Seattle Majestics) 

• Mel Garces (Seattle Majestics) 

• Paulina Lopez (Seattle Majestics) 

• Olga Valdez (Seattle Majestics) 

• Venom Garcia (Seattle Majestics)

• Irlanda Diaz (Utah Falconz) 

• Elois Torres Torres (Texas Elite Spartans)

Europe Rising: Nordic Foundations, Continental Flow

Finland has been building women’s tackle football since the early 2000s, and in 2013 and 2022, they claimed bronze at the IFAF Women’s World Championship. That foundation is paying off here. Finnish linebacker Anastasia Olavuo (Kansas City Glory) was a sideline-to-sideline presence, racking up 30 tackles. And in the secondary, Harmine Christina Leo (Bahamas/Jersey Shore Wave) led the entire league in pass deflections (8), a disruptive force in every game she played. Tiia Jansen, who sharpened her game in Finnish leagues, lined up at tight end for the Glory and turned 20 catches into 191 yards and five touchdowns.

The Nordic nations built early, but in 2022 it was Great Britain that shook up the world rankings. At the IFAF Women’s World Championship in Vantaa, Finland, the British women’s national tackle team stunned many by advancing to the gold medal game, ultimately earning silver behind the United States. That silver wasn’t a one-off, it’s the result of a decade of investment in coaching, competition, and pathways for women in football. At the 2025 World Games, Great Britain finished 4th, just outside the medals, confirming their steady climb but also highlighting how tough the Americas have become at the top.

Several British players are now in the WNFC pipeline, bringing that same physical, fast style to American fields:

Spain, the reigning IFAF European champion, is beginning to send its own talent across the Atlantic. Germany, Sweden, and the UK, all regulars in continental competition, are not far behind. The European market is no longer just “developing”; it’s producing players ready to step into starting roles in the WNFC.

Finland - Kansas City Glory backbone

• Tiia Jansen (TE), 1st-Team All-Pro, 191 rec yds, 5 TD; a red-zone nightmare.

• Nana Olavuo (LB), 1st-Team All-Pro, 30 tackles and tone-setting physicality.

Sweden

• Ida Handel (Kansas City Glory), 1st-Team All-Pro Center, the pivot in one of the league’s most cohesive fronts.

• Johanna Aspenberg (San Diego Rebellion), sturdy perimeter playmaker.

Germany

• Rea Schmidt (San Diego Rebellion) 

• Stella Martin (Seattle Majestics)

United Kingdom

• Ruby Watson (San Diego Rebellion) 

• Rebecca Banks (Seattle Majestics) 

• Kemmi Crosby (Tennessee Trojans)

Czech

• Alena Kuzmova (San Diego Rebellion), 1st-Team All-Pro DL, 4.5 sacks (near the league lead), 30 tackles.

Spain

• Maria Boira Lopez (Florida Avengers)

Netherlands

• Jessica Jeans (Texas Elite Spartans))

Emerging Markets, Big Impact

Some of the most compelling stories this year came from countries where women’s football is still young. The Bahamas, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Belize, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, and the Democratic Republic of Congo may not yet have the resources of a Canada or a Mexico, but their representatives in the WNFC are changing perceptions.

They arrive hungry, eager to absorb coaching, film study, and the week-to-week grind of a professional league. They return home as ambassadors, raising the bar for everyone they play with and against. It’s a cycle the league is watching closely, because these are the seeds of future national programs.

Caribbean & Latin America: Speed, Skill, and Swagger

• Bahamas

  • Trevez Bridgewater (Denver Bandits), live wire on defense and teams (forced fumbles, splash plays).

• Colombia

  • Monica Salazar (Seattle Majestics), a smooth operator who fits the Majestics’ pace-and-space DNA.

• Brazil

  • Ana Bittencourt (Kansas City Glory), a steady, physical presence who raises the weekly baseline.

From the islands to South America, these programs are early in tackle, advanced in flag, and very comfortable in the open field, perfect raw material for the WNFC’s tempo.

Africa: Strength at the Point of Attack (and Stories Just Beginning)

• Cameroon

  • Girly Tambeagbor (Las Vegas Silver Stars), length and pop off the edge.

• Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Cathy Wabenga (Texas Elite Spartans), stout, heavy hands, and unbothered by contact. A IX Cup Champion.

• Ethiopia

  • Semeret Abdulkarim (Chicago Winds), hands and fearlessness in traffic.

These are foundational years: one player becomes a team captain back home, a captain becomes a coach, and suddenly you’ve got a federation building around real examples.

Asia–Pacific: Technique, Quickness, and Transferable Flag IQ

• Japan

  • Maki Yamagata (Utah Falconz), efficiency and detail.

• New Zealand

  • Kristen Aoake Taylor (Texas Elite Spartans), versatile athlete with rugby toughness in her toolkit.

• Philippines

  • Monique Pineda (Chicago Winds) 

  • Aisling Moloney (Chicago Winds), savvy route running and return value.

The hallmark here: high football IQ from flag, plus crossover toughness from rugby and track, exactly the traits that stick on WNFC rosters.

Why They’re All Coming Here

Ask any of them why they chose the WNFC, and the answer is simple: it’s the highest level of women’s tackle football in the world.

World class sponsorship support (adidas, Dove, Riddell Sports). Every game is streamed globally to their fans on Victory+. The IX Cup Championship aired live on ESPN2. The majority of the U.S. Women’s National Team call the WNFC home. The league’s game-day production, coaching standards, and competitive depth have set a standard that other countries want to measure against.

And the results speak for themselves. The 2025 All-Pro list reads like a mini United Nations, with Canadians, Mexicans, Finns, Bahamians, and Czechs not just participating, but dominating.

The Loop That Grows the Game

This is how a global sport scales: federations invest in girls and women; athletes rise through flag and tackle; the WNFC becomes the finishing school; those athletes go home better and bring the bar with them. Next season, there’ll be more. And the season after that.

Our Commissioner, Janice Masters has a simple way of putting it:

“When a player from Cameroon lines up next to a player from Canada, chasing the same dream, that’s when you know football really is the world’s game. And we’re just proving it, in shoulder pads.”

In 2025, the world didn’t just watch the WNFC, It showed up, suited up, and left its mark. Stay tuned to see which where the talent comes from in 2026.