The Women’s Euros is in its 13th edition as England hosts the delayed Women’s Euro 2022. While the tournament is older than the Women’s World Cup, the top scorer’s table all-time is actually much lower. Marta has the record in the Women’s World Cup with 17 goals, while the leading pair in the Women’s Euros have just 10 goals each.
Some of this is due to the standard of competition, there are generally worse teams at the World Cup, and some is due to the fact that the early editions of the tournament only consisted of four teams. It wasn’t until the seventh Women’s Euros that four teams became eight. As such, there were fewer games to score goals in.
Who is the Top Women’s Euros Goal Scorer of all time? A pair of Germans lead the way in the all-time Women’s Euros top goalscorer charts. Inka Grings and Birgit Prinz managed to score 10 goals apiece in their European Championship matches. Prinz made a habit of scoring goals in big international matches as she is also the joint highest goalscorer in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
Here is a look at the top scorers ever in Women’s Euros matches.
Inka Grings – 10 (Two Tournaments)
The most impressive aspect of Grings goalscoring record is that she scored 10 times in just two Women’s Euros. In fact, Grings would likely be by far and away the top scorer at the Euros had she not had to miss the entire 2001 tournament (on home soil) through injury. As good as Grings was, and she was outstanding, her injury record (she also missed the 2003 Women’s World Cup) must also be mentioned in the context of her career.
Those injuries almost forced Grings into retirement before even kicking a ball at a Women’s Euros. Another major tournament was missed in 2004 when an ACL tear took her out just before the Summer Olympics. It was only during rehab that Grings decided to move forward with her career.
Germany won their sixth title at the 2005 Euros with a fully recovered Grings playing a leading role. She scored four goals to become the leading scorer, doing most of her damage during the knockout rounds. She scored two goals inside 12 minutes as part of a German onslaught that put them 3-0 up against Finland in a 4-1 win in the semi-final. She then struck after 21 minutes in the final against Norway to give Germany a lead they would build on to win 3-1.
Grings was even better at Euro 2009. Germany again took the crown (their seventh) and she top scored for the second straight event, this time scoring six goals. Two goals in the group stage, both strikes in a 2-1 win over Italy in the first ever quarter-finals, then goals four and five in the final as England were demolished 6-2. Grings retired from international football in 2012.
Birgit Prinz – 10 (Five Tournaments)
The major difference between Prinz and Grings is how long it took each woman to rack up her 10 goals. While Grings was a two-tournament monster, Prinz was a consistent threat in every Women’s Euros from 1995 until 2009. Prinz was able to score at least one goal in each of those events. It is for her longevity that she is revered.
Prinz is really a model of consistency. She never scored more than three goals in a single Euros which meant that she was never crowned as the top scorer. She also, however, never went a single Euros without scoring a goal. The tournament that she scored three goals at was Euro 2005 in England where she scored in both the semi-final (fourth goal in a 4-1) win and the final (crucial third goal with Germany 2-1 against Norway and on the ropes).
Prinz made a habit of scoring in finals. She also scored the second goal for Germany in the 1995 Euros when she netted second to put her nation 2-1 up against Sweden in a game they would go on to win 3-2. This was her very first Euros competition.
She would again score in the final in 1997 (a 2-0 win over Italy) and twice in the 2009 final (including the first goal of the game). The only Euros final Prinz didn’t score in during her run of five tournaments in a row was the 2001 tournament in Germany. An exceptional player on an exceptional team who always knew where the goal was and that would run through a wall for her country.
Other notables
- Carolina Morace (8) – Morace is astonishing for her longevity. She played for Italy from 1978-1997 and was the Serie A top scorer for 11 consecutive seasons at one point. She scored her first two Euros goals in the first edition of the tournament in 1984. She scored her last four Euros goals at the seventh edition in 1997. In the middle, she didn’t score in two editions (1989 and 1991) and didn’t even play in 1995. Wild career.
- Heidi Mohr (8) – Mhor scored 83 career goals for Germany in 104 matches and was their leading scorer until Prinz took that crown. She was deadly at the Euros, scoring eight times in four tournaments (three tournament wins), and was the top scorer with four goals at the 1991 event.
- Lotta Schelin (8) – The third and final player with eight goals is Swedish striker Schelin. She started slowly with just one goal in her first two Euros combined (2005 and 2009), before exploding with five goals to become the top scorer at Women’s Euro 2013 in her home country. Two more goals followed at the 2017 tournament before retirement.
- Beth Mead (5) – Worthy of a place on this list as a potential future top scorer. Mead is 27 years old and has scored all five of her Women’s Euros goals at the current 2022 tournament. If England continues to win, then Mead will have a chance to get closer to the record by the end of the event.