The ranking is compiled each year by the Guardian newspaper in conjunction with the Offside Rule Podcast and it is the second time in its three years existence that Harder has been at the top.

This year’s list derived from the votes of 88 judges from 42 countries, including famous coaches and players plus journalists and broadcasters.

Harder is fresh to Chelsea this season and scored her first Champions League goal for the club in the 5-0 win away to Benfica earlier in the week. The 28-year-old striker, in her interview with the Guardian to mark topping the list, confirms the club’s ambition to win this trophy was important in her choosing to move to London from Germany. She was previously at Wolfsburg where she won a string of domestic titles but not the European one. She has been runner-up twice.

‘I thought that the English league was really interesting,’ she said. ‘I want to be where I feel like there’s the biggest competition. Then Chelsea because they have the same ambitions as me. Winning as many titles as possible and also the Champions League, they want to go for that.’

As the partner of Chelsea Women skipper Magdalena Eriksson, her new club was not totally unfamiliar when she arrived, as she explains in the interview.

‘I felt like I knew all of the players already, and what they were good at, that makes everything much easier. I watched a lot of their games last season, so when they talk about a game last season, then I also remember it, because I watched it so that’s pretty cool.’

The Dane is one of 11 Chelsea players in the 100 for 2020. Last year’s number one Sam Kerr is at seven, Ji So-Yun is 16, Magdalena Eriksson and Bethany England are 25 and 26 respectively with Maren Mjelde at 39.

Guro Reiten is listed at 46, Erin Cuthbert 60, another new signing Melanie Leupolz is 63rd with Millie Bright at 66 and Ann-Katrin Berger at 67.