10 years of NXGN: Lauren James, Lena Oberdorf and where 2020's best women's football wonderkids are now

2020: Having made her senior Colombia debut in 2019, Caicedo made a controversial transfer later the following year when she switched from America de Cali to rivals Deportivo Cali, after leading the former to their first-ever Championship title.

2021: Unable to make her Copa Libertadores debut the year before with America due to age restrictions, Caicedo did so in 2021, scoring four goals in four games. She helped Deportivo win the league, too, and netted her first senior international goal in a 2-0 win over Chile.

2022: The busiest year of her young career saw Caicedo star as Colombia were Copa America runners-up, winning the tournament’s Golden Ball award while also being named Player of the Match in the final. She also helped fire her country to the U17 World Cup final a few months later, scoring four goals in six games.

2023: Just days after her 18th birthday, Caicedo joined Real Madrid and played in the club's first major final a few months later. She then starred at the Women's World Cup as Colombia enjoyed a best-ever run to the quarter-finals, winning Goal of the Tournament for her strike against Germany.

2024: Caicedo's stock continued to rise in a year where she became an Olympian for the first time and her Colombia team came so close to eliminating Spain, the world champions, in the quarter-finals, only to lose on penalties.

2025: It's another big year for Caicedo, who looks set to play in a fourth senior major tournament in four years this summer at the 2025 edition of Copa America. Club success remains on the cards too, with Real Madrid into the quarter-finals of the Women's Champions League for just the second time.

2020: After an excellent showing at the 2019 AFC U19 Championship, it felt like 2020 could be a great year for Yamamoto to build on that. However, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the lack of football that took place as a result, largely limited her opportunities.

2021: Yamamoto made her first appearance in a league match for Tokyo Verdy Beleza in late 2021, in the newly-formed WE League. It would go on to be an excellent season for her, in which she played 20 games in all competitions for the senior team, scoring four goals.

2022: After scoring her first goal for Tokyo Verdy Beleza in March, Yamamoto had an excellent U20 Women’s World Cup in 2022, scoring three goals and registering three assists in six games as Japan reached the final. Those numbers won her the Bronze Boot.

2023:Yamamoto was a regular at Tokyo Verdy Beleza, either as a starter or from the bench, and played for Japan at the Women's Asian Games, helping her nation to win the gold medal.

2024: Now a key player in her club's starting XI, Yamamoto had a fantastic 2023-24 season and was one of her team's top players for goals and assists in the WE League.

2025: Yamamoto has continued that form into the 2024-25 as Tokyo Verdy Beleza look to make up for last year's trophy-less season, something they are in a strong position to do right now.

2020: The college programme in the U.S. was hit heavily by the Covid-19 pandemic, with Wiesner seeing little action as a result.

2021: Wiesner didn’t see any action in the spring due to injury, but returned for the fall, starting nine of her 19 appearances for Penn State.

2022: The following year, for her senior season, Wiesner started 22 games and led the Big Ten in assists, with 11 in her 23 appearances. She also netted two goals.

2023:Wiesner started the year with an U23 camp with the national team and completed her final season at Penn State, going out strong by being selected for the Third Team All-Big Ten squad.

2024: With the seventh overall pick in the 2024 NWSL Draft, Wiesner was chosen by the Washington Spirit and helped the team reach the Championship game in her rookie year in the top league in the United States. She was also called up as a training player to Emma Hayes' first USWNT roster.

2025: Wiesner will be looking to establish herself more firmly in the Spirit's starting XI in her second year in the NWSL, while hoping that can help her USWNT chances.

2020: After making her senior international debut in 2019, Monday continued to excel in Nigeria with FC Robo, named Player of the Month twice in succession in the 2020-21 season.

2021: Monday left Robo in 2021, for Bayelsa Queens, and would fire them to the 2021-22 league title, top-scoring in the league and winning the Player of the Season award.

2022: The forward would soon earn a big move abroad, signing for Tenerife in the summer of 2022 to play her football in the top-flight in Spain. She was part of Nigeria’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations, too, as the Super Falcons finished fourth.

2023: In her first season outside of her home country, Monday became a regular starter in Tenerife’s team and finished her first Liga F campaign with three goals and three assists. She also earned a place in Nigeria's Women's World Cup squad.

2024: Monday registered a team-best and individual-best tally of goals in the 2023-24 season, though her goal-scoring form sadly could not help Nigeria qualify for the Olympic Games in the summer.

2025: Monday has started 2025 in an explosive manner, scoring six times in her first league five games of the calendar year, and will hope to keep that up ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in July.

2020: After going to the World Cup with Australia in 2019, Fowler returned home and made such an impact with Adelaide in her first experience of top-flight football that Montpellier signed her in early 2020.

2021: In her second season in France, Fowler became an integral part of Montpellier’s side, starting 15 of her 22 league appearances, but also a key cog in the senior Australia team. At the Olympics, pushed back to 2021, she was on the scoresheet in the Matildas’ thrilling 4-3 extra-time win over Great Britain.

2022: While she continued to be an important figure for her country, 2022 was the year that Fowler bid farewell to France after two-and-a-half years, signing for Manchester City in the summer transfer window. She also played in Australia’s disappointing Asian Cup campaign, scoring twice in four games.

2023: Despite struggling to nail down a starting spot at City, Fowler remained a key player for Australia and starred as the Matildas enjoyed a best-ever World Cup run, reaching the semi-finals at their home tournament.

2024: Fowler helped Australia qualify for this summer's Olympic Games, though that tournament ended in disappointment for the Matildas. At club level, her game time in Manchester increased significantly, with her nailing down a starting role by the end of the 2023-24 season.

2025: For Man City, Fowler has built upon that strong end to the previous season in 2024-25 and is unquestionably one of the team's key players now.

2020: After an excellent CONCACAF U17 Women’s Championship in 2018, Dumornay repeated the trick at the U20 edition as she picked up the tournament’s Golden Boot.

2021: After turning 18, Dumornay finally got her long-anticipated move abroad when she chose to join French club Reims. The Haitian star would provide two assists on her debut and was involved in three goals on her first start.

2022: Dumornay kicked off 2022 by winning that year’s NXGN award. In the summer, she represented Haiti at the senior CONCACAF Championship, making the best XI and being named the tournament’s best young player.

2023: In the January window, Dumornay signed for eight-time European champions Lyon – her dream move. Things got even better a month later when the youngster fired Haiti to its first ever Women's World Cup, a tournament she certainly caught the eye at as her nation impressed plenty despite their group-stage exit.

2024: Despite suffering some injuries, Dumornay made a strong start to life at Lyon, with goals in both legs of the Champions League semi-final clash against PSG certainly stand-out moments of 2024 for her.

2025: Now fully-fit, Dumornay is delivering at an incredible rate in her second season at Lyon, hitting double figures for league goals at the midway point of the 2024-25 campaign.

2020:James ended the 2019-20 season with six goals in the Women’s Super League, in 12 appearances. Sadly, niggling injuries would limit her game time throughout the 2020-21 season, though.

2021: After making just five league starts in the 2020-21 campaign, James left Manchester United in the summer window, joining Chelsea for a then WSL-record fee.

2022:James made a handful of appearances across all competitions in her first season with the Blues, as they won the league and FA Cup. Her focus, though, was on working hard to get over the fitness issues that had plagued her in the north west. That work paid dividends, with her starting the 2022-23 season incredibly well and making her senior England debut as a result.

2023:The forward scored her first senior international goal in February, on just her sixth appearance, and went to the World Cup that summer as a key player as England reached the final for the first time.

2024: While James ended the 2023-24 season as Chelsea's top-scorer as they won another league title, injuries prevented her from having a similar impact at England level. She missed all of the Lionesses' final four camps of 2024.

2025: Those problems also impacted the start of James' 2024-25 season for Chelsea, though she finally returned to the pitch in early 2025 and looks primed to put those struggles behind her ahead of England's European Championship title defence this summer.

2020: Pina was largely a fringe player for the first few years of her time with Barcelona's first team, after debuting aged 16. In 2020, then, she secured a loan deal to Sevilla for the upcoming season. There, she thrived with regular minutes, starting 29 games in the league and scoring nine goals.

2021: After that fruitful season in Seville, Pina returned to Catalunya and became a much more important figure with Barca. In August 2021, she would make her senior debut for Spain, too, in a friendly against Denmark.

2022:Pina’s influence in Barcelona only grew in 2022. Having enjoyed a sublime 2021-22 season, ending the campaign with 14 league goals despite only 10 starts, she would be given more and more responsibility going into the new campaign. Among her highlights in the year was a goal at Camp Nou against Real Madrid in the Champions League, in front of a new world-record crowd for a women’s game.

2023: Pina was an integral part of the Barca team that won a European treble but sadly missed out on Spain's Women's World Cup triumph in the summer, as she was one of several players who had resigned from the national team until changes were made within the federation.

2024: Pina continued to play a key role at club level as Barca won an historic first quadruple on the women's side, and she also made her Spain return after over two years away, marking it with a goal.

2025: The forward's decision to return to international football is a boost for Spain ahead of this summer's Euros, with her looking to go into that tournament off the back of another big season at Barcelona.

2020:Before the pandemic stopped a lot of women’s football, Huitema kicked off 2020 in some style, winning the Golden Boot at the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament by scoring seven goals in just five games.

2021:Huitema not only became an Olympian in 2021 at the delayed Tokyo Games, but an Olympic champion. She made four appearances from the bench as Canada won the gold medal, beating Sweden on penalties in the final. The forward was also part of the Paris Saint-Germain team that won the French title for the first time.

2022:In three years at PSG, Huitema struggled to assert herself as a regular starter and would leave the club in 2022 to join OL Reign in the United States. The forward won her 50th cap for Canada, too, ahead of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship in which her country reached the final.

2023: Huitema was a key member of OL Reign's starting XI as it reached the NWSL Championship game, registering her best goal return in a senior league season along the way. The forward was part of Canada's World Cup squad, too, but it was a tournament that ended in a disappointing and shocking group-stage exit.

2024: Huitema started the year in good form, scoring three times for Canada before they were eliminated by the U.S. in the Gold Cup semi-finals. She couldn't keep that up in the NWSL with the Reign, who had an underwhelming year, but did help her country defy the odds and reach the quarter-finals at the Olympics.

2025: The striker will hope for a better goal-scoring year this time, as the Reign looks to put that disappointing 2024 behind it.

2020:The first-ever women’s NXGN winner, Oberdorf switched clubs in 2020, leaving Essen to join two-time European champions Wolfsburg. She would immediately become a key player for the German giants.

2021: Oberdorf won her first trophy with Wolfsburg in 2021, the DFB-Pokal, and saw her importance to the national team begin to grow, too.

2022: After helping her club win the league and cup double, Oberdorf had an outstanding Euro 2022 with Germany. She was named Young Player of the Tournament and was included in the Best XI as her country reached the final, only losing to England in extra-time. Her excellent year was reflected in the Ballon d'Or rankings, as she finished fourth in the voting.

2023: Oberdorf was a key part of the Wolfsburg team that reached the Champions League final and she helped her team win the DFB-Pokal, too. However, her second World Cup tournament ended in disappointment as Germany suffered a shock group-stage exit.

2024: It was a big year for Oberdorf, who joined Bayern Munich in the summer after four years in Wolfsburg, but it was cut short before Germany's Olympic campaign, in which they won a bronze medal, due to a devastating ACL injury.

2025: Oberdorf's focus is now on continuing her rehab and getting back on the pitch, with the European Championships a possibility if she can do that before July.