Sarina Wiegman’s England women’s team have now won back-to-back Euros tournaments and made it to the final of the World Cup between those victories. They are the first senior English national team to win a major tournament on foreign soil and the first to retain a major title. So it seems like a good time to consider whether the Lionesses should be held in more esteem than their male counterparts. In other words, are the women better than the men?
Objectively, if you simply pitted the current men’s side against the current Lionesses team, it would be a safe(ish) bet that Thomas Tuchel’s men would win. But if we look beyond that notion and consider each side on their merits relative to the domains in which each competes, perhaps it’s time for England fans to pay more attention to the women’s side than the men’s.
Individual Records – Caps
Let’s compare a few records between the men and women to see how things stack up. Starting with the most individual caps, goalkeeping legend Peter Shilton is still the top dog for the men with 125 appearances for the Three Lions between 1970 and 1990. Wayne Rooney is second with 120 caps, with other relatively recent stars David Beckham and Steven Gerrard following up on 115 and 114, respectively.
The first player on the list to have actually won a major tournament is next, with Bobby Moore in fifth place on 108 caps. At the time of writing, Ashley Cole and Harry Kane are in joint sixth spot on 107, though the latter is sure to add to his total in the coming months and years. The great Bobby Charlton and the not-quite-so-great Frank Lampard are next on 106 caps apiece, with Billy Wright next on 105.
For the women, it’s interesting to note that seven players have earned more caps than the England’s current record holder. Topping the tree in terms of appearances is Fara Williams, who played for the Lionesses a whopping 172 times between 2001 and 2019, scoring 40 goals. Although she was pivotal in England’s rise to prominence, she didn’t actually manage to win a major trophy, although she came close, losing in the 2009 Euros final and coming third in the 2015 World Cup.
Behind Williams, we have Lioness legend Jill Scott, who earned 161 caps between 2006 and 2022, and helped England win their first Euros title in 2022. Then comes Karen Carney (144), the tough-as-nails Lucy Bronze alongside Alex Scott on 140, Casey Stoney on 130, and trailblazer Rachel Yankey on 129. Steph Houghton, Gillian Coultard and Kelly Smith complete the top 10 on 121, 119 and 117 appearances, respectively.
Individual Records – Goals
Although the women are ahead of the men when it comes to appearances, if we turn to goals, it’s the men who are ahead… although mainly thanks to Harry Kane. The Bayern Munich man’s current record haul of 73 goals in 107 appearances is 20 more than second-placed Wayne Rooney managed for the Three Lions. And it’s 21 more than the Lioness’s sharpest shooter, Ellen White, who notched 52 goals in her 113 appearances between 2010 and 2022.
Next up, for the men, we have Bobby Charlton, whose 49 goals from 106 caps was a long-standing record and lasted until Rooney eased past the 1966 hero many years after Charlton had hung up his boots. A man who came close to bettering that total was Gary Lineker, but he retired on 48 goals from 80 games for England. Jimmy Greaves managed an excellent return of 44 goals from just 57 England games, while Michael Owen is the only other man to have scored 40 or more for England (he scored exactly 40 in 89 appearances).
For the women, aside from White, four others have scored 40 or more goals for their country. Kelly Smith (46 from 117 games), Kerry Davis (43 from 90), Karen Walker (41 from 86) and Fara Williams (as mentioned, 40 from 172). In terms of goal averages, the best of the top scorers for the women has been Kerry Davis who scored an average of 0.54 goals per game.
That’s quite a way behind the likes of Jimmy Greaves (0.77 goals per England game), Nat Lofthouse (who scored 30 goals in 33 games, or 0.91 goals per game), or indeed the astonishing figures achieved by Vivian Woodward. The great man bagged 29 goals from just 23 England games between 1903 and 1911, a scoring rate 1.26 goals per match!
The Only Stats That Matter?
Okay, so the women are ahead on the appearances front, but the men at least regain a little pride when it comes to scoring goals. But when all’s said and done, there truly is only one statistic that really matters and that’s the number of major trophies each team has won.
For the men, that’s quite an easy one to tot up… it’s still just the one. Of course, the 1966 World Cup has gone down as one of the greatest achievements in British (okay, English) sporting history. But the men have never won another World Cup. The closest they’ve been since was when Bobby Robson led them to fourth place at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, and then when Gareth Southgate emulated that feat in 2022 in his first tournament in charge.
When it comes to the Euros, the men have never won it, but they’ve been agonisingly close. Again it was Southgate in charge when the Three Lions made their first-ever Euros final in 2021 (a delayed version of Euro 2020). Alas, they lost to Italy on penalties!
The women, meanwhile, have shown the men how to do it with two Euros triumphs in a row. They were also losing finalists in 2009 and way back in 1984. And they lost in the World Cup final in 2023 (to Spain, against whom they exacted revenge in the Euro 2025 final!), and finished third in the 2015 World Cup.
Overall then, we have to conclude that the England women’s team are indeed better than the men’s. One thing that could change that, of course, is if the men win something the women never have: the World Cup. So, it’s over to Thomas Tuchel and the boys to see what they can do at World Cup 2026!