Following on from 2012, Australians once again headed overseas in the off-season to make an impact in the biggest leagues in the world.

Five found their way to the newly instituted American National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) including Kyah Simon (Boston Breakers), Sam Kerr (Western New York Flash), Lisa De Vanna and Caitlin Foord (both Sky Blue FC) and Emily van Egmond (Seattle Reign).

All made important contributions to their teams in particular De Vanna who finished third in Sky Blue’s goalscoring, Foord who was named in the NWSL Second XI Team of the Year and Sam Kerr who assisted the Flash to the Regular season premiership and finalists in the Championship.

While in the USL W-League Brisbane Roar teammates Emily Gielnik (Ottawa Fury) and Brooke Spence (Colorado Rapids) both made their presence felt leading their teams in the 2013 season.

So influential were they that Spence (who captained the Rapids) was named in the Western Conference Team of the Year (for the second year running) and nominated for Defender of the Year while Gielnik was named in the Central Conference Team of the Year and finalist in the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards.

Across the pond Tameka Butt found her way to one of the top teams in Europe, FFC Frankfurt.  Butt quickly adapted to the physical, high octane environment of the Frauen Bundesliga as the 22 year old scored on debut before going on to net on several more occasions for the three time European Champions.

Post by TheWomensGame.

As their reputations continue to grow, Australians also found their way all over Europe including in Norway (Ellie Brush), Finland (Jen Bisset), Iceland (Rosie Sutton), Sweden (Lydia Williams, Brianna Davey and Nicole Sykes) and Croatia (Grace Gill) while Servet Uzunlar made a rare foray into Asia by lining up in South Korea.