Giulia Gwinn has been named Germany’s Women’s Footballer of the Year for 2026, taking the award outright after sharing it with Ann-Katrin Berger last year.
SEO Title: Giulia Gwinn wins 2026 Women’s Footballer of the Year award
SEO Description: Bayern Munich defender Giulia Gwinn takes the 2026 Women’s Footballer of the Year prize after a double-winning season and a Champions League semi-final run.
Gwinn takes individual award after Bayern double
The Bayern Munich full-back collected 106 votes in the ballot of German sports journalists. There were 618 valid ballots and nine invalid votes.
Klara Bühl, Gwinn’s Bayern team-mate, finished second on 94 votes. Jule Brand was third with 82, leaving the same 12-vote gap between first and second as between second and third.
Quick facts
- Giulia Gwinn won the 2026 award with 106 votes.
- Klara Bühl placed second with 94 votes.
- Jule Brand took third place on 82 votes.
- Ann-Katrin Berger, a winner in each of the previous two years, finished sixth.
- Gwinn made 31 Bayern appearances in 2025/26 and scored three goals.
Gwinn’s vote total was 39 lower than in the previous election. Bühl’s support rose by 41 votes year on year.
The 27-year-old said she had not expected to win again. Her first reaction, she said, was disbelief, adding that Bühl would have received her own vote.
The award follows a demanding 2025/26 campaign for Gwinn. Bayern won the domestic double and reached the Women’s Champions League semi-finals for the first time since 2021, with Gwinn among the side’s leading figures.
She played the closing weeks of the season after a shoulder injury suffered in mid-April. Gwinn used a protective support and stopped taking throw-ins.
As Germany captain, she also reached the Nations League finals with the national team. More recently, she watched Bayern’s 3-0 Supercup win against Wolfsburg while recovering from shoulder surgery, then missed the 4-1 league-opening victory over Union.
The Women’s Footballer of the Year award has been presented since 1996. Birgit Prinz remains its most successful winner, taking eight titles, including eight consecutive awards from 2001 through 2008.
