Fenna Kalma Set To End 2022 As Leading Female Goalscorer In The World

23-year-old Dutch striker Fenna Kalma of Twente Enschede is set to be the unlikely winner of the title of the leading female goalscorer in the calendar year after ending 2022 with 45 goals in all competitions. This year, only the men’s Golden Boot winner at the FIFA World Cup, Kylian Mbappé has currently scored more goals than her.

With most of Europe’s top women’s leagues closed down until the New Year, Kalma is set to succeed the then Barcelona and Spain striker, Jenni Hermoso, who scored 51 goals in all competitions in 2021. Kalma is six goals clear of Belgian striker Tessa Wullaert and seven ahead of Chelsea and Australia forward, Sam Kerr who has scored 38 goals in all competitions.

With just six days remaining in 2022, Kalma has currently scored more goals in the calendar year than many of the leading strikers in the men’s game, currently ahead of Erling Haaland (43), Robert Lewandowski (42) and the world’s best player, Lionel Messi (35). Only the men’s Golden Boot winner at the recent FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar, France and Paris Saint-Germain striker, Kylian Mbappé is ahead of Kalma with a remarkable 55 goals in 55 games in 2022, including eight in seven at the World Cup finals.

Of Kalma’s 45 goals in 2022, 31 were scored in the Dutch top flight, the Eredivisie, six in domestic cup comepetitions, six in the UEFA Women’s Champions League during a 13-0 qualification win over Moldovan club Agarista-ȘS Anenii Noi, and two in her four international appearances for the Dutch national team.

Kalma joined Twente in 2019 after scoring 37 league goals in her 51 Eredivisie matches in three seasons for Heerenveen, a club renowned for cultivating star strikers in the men’s game such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Bas Dost. After scoring a goal every other game in her first two seasons in Enschede, Kalma had a breakthrough campaign in 2021/22 becoming the first woman in Dutch history to score 30 goals in a single campaign, finishing with a record 33 league goals in just 24 appearances.

Such form was insufficient to earn her a place in the Netherlands’ squad for the UEFA Women’s Euro where she was named as one of eight stand-by players for the tournament. Yet, after the holder’s disappointing defense of their European title ended with defeat at the quarter-final stage, Kalma earned her first senior call-up for the Netherlands in September, scoring the winning goal against Scotland after coming on as a second-half substitute for all-time leading international goalscorer, Vivianne Miedema.

The signature of Kalma is bound to be in demand during the summer transfer window after only committing to a one-year contract extension in May until June 2023 at which point she could become a free agent. Twente Enschede Technical manager René Roord said of Kalma, “I am very happy that Fenna will play with us for at least one more season. In terms of mentality, a real top player, who guarantees goals.”

Elsewhere in the list of the world’s leading female goalscorers, the current joint top-scorer in the English Women’s Super League, Manchester City and Jamaica striker, Khadija Shaw finishes with 35 goals in 2022. The top goalscorer in the UEFA Women’s Euro, Beth Mead, ended up with 26 goals in all competitions, after suffering a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury in November. She was joined on 26 goals in the calendar year by her international team-mate, Georgia Stanway who scored all of her goals from midfield.

Mead did finish the year as UEFA’s joint-top goalscorer in their senior club and international competitions. Her two goals away to Lyon in the UEFA Women’s Champions League took her total to eight in 2022, alongside Barcelona and Spain’s midfielder, Aitana Bonmatí who scored seven in the UEFA Women’s Champions League during 2022 as well as a single goal in the UEFA Women’s Euro.

The top of the list is dominated by European-based players with only strikers from Liga MX Femenil in Mexico entering the top ten. Those from elsewhere in the world are headed by 21-year-old United States’ forward Mia Fishel who scored 33 times for Tigres UANL according to statistics from the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).