When I watched the Manchester Derby in the WSL between Manchester City and Manchester United in February, I was surprised by some of the comments made by the commentators. The first comment was prompted by a question from a viewer who asked why Man City forward Ellen White isn't mentioned whenever people talk about the best strikers in the world.
"I definitely think she's underrated... Every season she's consistent. I think her City numbers aren't as good as her England numbers. Every big tournament she steps up..."
"The other thing to say about Ellen White, is that she is playing against tough defenses at a consistently high level. Absolutely no disrespect to a player like Katoto... I think if Ellen White was playing up front for PSG week in and week out in the French league, she'd probably have better goal figures."
The other comment was about City's failure to qualify for the Champion's League group stages against Real Madrid.
"A real oddity over those two games against Real Madrid. Beforehand, you'd think that City are solid favorites, and you could watch the games and not see the score lines and think they were the better side, and somehow, they found a way not to win. Strangely, they managed to beat Everton 4-0 in between those two games. There was nothing wrong with their form."
They were two separate statements with the same underlying theme. The English are very proud of their football, and rightfully so. They have rich history and tradition, are home to world class leagues for both men and women. They deserve credit for the effort and commitment to making the WSL a fully professional league. However, it feels like because they are the loudest and have a good looking product surrounding the football, that it is often propped up as the best league in the world. I feel similarly about the NWSL, but that's a different discussion.
A look at league goals from the 2017-2018 season to the current 2021-2022 season, one can see there is a big gap between White and Katoto. White has scored 37 league goals which is a good return over 4 seasons. Katoto has scored 68 league goals. Sixty-eight league goals is nothing to balk at, especially in a top 5 league in Europe. However, if the quality of the defense in a league is still an issue, a look at her performances in the Champion's League prove that she also does it against the best teams in the world. Katoto shows up, and does so consistently. Last season she nearly led a very good PSG to the Champion's League Final, and this year she is single handedly carrying a weaker PSG deeper into the knockout rounds. What she has done and continues to do is more than merely racking up goals against French league defenses.
City's crosstown rival, Manchester United, and Real Madrid some things in common. They are both huge clubs with a lot of money that dragged their feet in investing in the women's game (better late than never). Both projects are a work in progress, but the differences start to emerge on the field. Real Madrid are using their resources to try and create a positive, possession based side with talented individuals. The end product is still raw, but the foundation is there. United's approach is more pragmatic, and out of possession oriented. Against City in the Manchester Derby, United didn't have the individual or collective quality to hurt City. Madrid had the individual quality to make it count against City, and will be dangerous once they become a cohesive, collective unit.
The final thing that came to mind when thinking about those comments is how incredibly tough it is for non-European players to play in the WSL. These are just two of the qualifications for non-EU players:
A player must have played for her country at least 75% of its competitive women's "A" team matches where she was available for selection, during the two years preceding the date of the application.
The player's country must be at or above 40th place in the official FIFA World Rankings when averaged over the two years preceding the date of the application.
England has a history of trying to limit the number of foreigners in their leagues. These concerns have persisted even until the 2000's as seen with Steven Gerrard's quote after the England men's national team failed to qualify for the 2008 Euro: "I think there is a risk of too many foreigners coming over, which would affect our national team eventually if it's not already. It is important we keep producing players." The quote was taken from Soccernomics which goes on to compare England's policy to restrict foreigners to import substitution in development economics. The book points out that the classic problem with import substitution is that it protects bad producers because there is little incentive for the producers to improve. In this case the "bad producers" would be English clubs and the product would be the players.
This is not to say that the English or European players that play in the WSL are not quality, on the contrary. However, the league is limiting itself from other talent pools that are only going to grow as the women's game grows. It might be worth revisiting these qualifications.
There is a lot to appreciate and learn from what the WSL has done. However, at the end of the day the product on the field matters, and that's where the WSL can learn from others.
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