Ranking the 25 best women volleyball players in the world

Ranking the 25 best women volleyball players in the world

Kenneth Mwenda, Cyprine Apindi
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:09 PM

Volleyball is among the world's most loved sports. Many professional volleyballers play the sport as a full-time career. There are many elite women volleyball players in the present-day world. They are come from different nations and play for different teams.

Best women volleyball players
Photo: canva.com (modified by author)
Source: UGC

The best women volleyball players of all time have made impressive career records. They are known for their stamina, strength, good pivoting skills, and motivation on the field. Discover more about them today.

Best women volleyball players in the world

Below are the best female volleyball players of all time you should know about. They have an excellent understanding of the game.

25. Misty May-Treanor

  • Full name: Misty Elizabeth May-Treanor
  • Date of birth: 30th July 1977
  • Age: 45 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Misty May-Treanor is one of the top female volleyball players of all time. She a retired American professional beach volleyball player.

She was a three-time Olympic gold medalist during her playing years. In August 2012, Misty May-Treanor was named the most successful female beach volleyball player, having won 112 tournaments in local and international competitions.

24. Winifer Fernandez

  • Full name: Winifer María Fernández Pérez
  • Date of birth: 6th January 1995
  • Age: 28 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic

Winifer Fernandez is one of the most famous women volleyball players today. Her position is Libero, and she has played for Santiago and Cienfuegos in her home country.

The volleyballer signed a contract with Caribeñas New Horizons in 2018. She was part of a title-winning team.

23. Zehra Güneş

hottest female volleyball players
Zehra Güneş is pictured on the field. Photo: @zehragns18 (modified by author)
Source: UGC
  • Full name: Zehra Güneş
  • Date of birth: 7th July 1999
  • Age: 23 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Kartal, Türkiye

Zehra Güneş is one of the hottest female volleyball players in the present-day world. She plays in the middle blocker position. She is currently signed with Vakıfbank Istanbul and is part of the Turkey women's national volleyball team.

22. Gabrielle Reece

beautiful female volleyball players
Gabrielle Reece and her husband Laird Hamilton arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of "An Inconvenient Truth" held at the DGA in Los Angeles, California. Photo: @Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Gabrielle Allyse Reece
  • Date of birth: 6th January 1970
  • Age: 53 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: La Jolla, California, United States of America

Gabrielle Reece is one of the best women volleyball players in the USA. Besides playing the sport, she is an announcer, actress, and fashion model. Reece is a former professional beach volleyball player and Nike’s first female spokeswoman.

21. Kerri Walsh Jennings

beautiful female volleyball players
Kerri Walsh Jennings of the USA reacts during the Women's Preliminary match against van Forrer/Verge-Depre of Switzerland at the Beach Volleyball events. Photo: @Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings
  • Date of birth: 15th August 1978
  • Age: 44 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Santa Clara, California, United States of America

Kerri Walsh Jennings is among the most famous women beach volleyball players. She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist. In 2000, she played for the U.S. indoor volleyball team at the Sydney Olympic Games.

20. Yelizaveta Tishchenko

famous women volleyball players
Yelizaveta Tishchenko posing for pictures. Photo: @lisaspike2004 (modified by author)
Source: UGC
  • Full name: Yelizaveta Tishchenko
  • Date of birth: 7th February 1975
  • Age: 48 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Kyiv, Ukraine

Yelizaveta Tishchenko is one of the most beautiful female volleyball players of all time. She made her debut for the Soviet national team in 1991. She participated in three Olympic Games in a row (1996, 2000, and 2004) and took home a silver medal twice.

19. Yelena Godina

The greatest women volleyball players of all time
Ukrainian Yuliya Svistina (R), Russian Elena Godina (2L) and Esther Lopez (L) a point during their volleyball Final Four Female second semifinal match. Photo: @ JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Yelena Mikhailovna Godina
  • Date of birth: 17th September 1977
  • Age: 45 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Yekaterinburg, Russia

Yelena Godina is a Russian player who was a part of the national team that won the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics and the gold medal at the 2006 Volleyball World Championship in Japan. She participated in the Olympics in 1996 and 2008.

18. Milena Rašić

  • Full name: Milena Rašić
  • Date of birth: 25th October 1990
  • Age: 32 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Pristina, Kosovo

Milena Rašić is among the most famous women volleyball players of all time. She was a professional player for Serbia who represented her country on the women's national team. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics and took home a silver medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

17. Natália Pereira

The most popular women's volleyball player
Natalia Pereira of Brazil celebrates during the award ceremony in the 2017 Nanjing FIVB World Grand Prix Finals between Italy and Brazil in Nanjing, China. Photo: @Zhizhao Wu
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Natália Zilio Pereira
  • Date of birth: 4th April 1989
  • Age: 33 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Ponta Grossa, State of Paraná, Brazil

Natália Pereira helped the Brazil women's national volleyball team win the gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She won the Most Valuable Player award and the gold medal at the 2016 FIVB World Grand Prix.

16. Gabriela Guimarães

Who is the No 1 women volleyball player in the world?
Gabriela Braga Guimaraes of Brazil celebrates a point during the Quarter Final match between Brazil and Japan at the FIVB Volleyball Womens World Championship. Photo: @Rene Nijhuis/Orange Pictures
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Gabriela Braga Guimarães
  • Date of birth: 19th May 1994
  • Age: 28 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Gabriela Guimarães is an outside spiker from Brazil. She plays indoor volleyball and participated in the Women's competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She took home a silver medal.

15. Fabiana Claudino

hottest female volleyball players
Fabiana Claudino celebrates after winning a point during the women's qualifying volleyball match between Brazil and Japan at the Maracanazinho stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: @JOHANNES EISELE/AFP
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Fabiana Marcelino Claudino
  • Date of birth: 24th January 1985
  • Age: 38 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil

At the 2012 Olympics, Fabiana Claudino was part of the Brazil team that won the gold medal. She was awarded the Best Spiker award at the 2006 World Grand Prix in Reggio Calabria, Italy, where Brazil won the gold medal for the sixth time. She also represented her home country in Athens, Greece, for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

14. Monica De Gennaro

  • Full name: Monica De Gennaro
  • Date of birth: 8th January 1987
  • Age: 36 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Piano di Sorrento, Italy

Monica De Gennaro is a member of the Italy women's national volleyball team and Prosecco Doc Imoco Volley as a professional player. She participated in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.

13. Eda Erdem Dündar

beautiful female volleyball players
Antalya Diplomacy Forum Closing Speech was made by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Volleyball Player Eda Erdem in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo: @Ozan Guzelce/ dia images
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Eda Erdem Dündar
  • Date of birth: 22nd June 1987
  • Age: 35 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: İstanbul, Türkiye

Eda Erdem plays for Fenerbahçe SK and the national team. She captains both teams. She has participated in over 300 games for Turkey's national team.

12. Irina Kirillova

  • Full name: Irina Vladimirovna Kirillova
  • Date of birth: 15th May 1965
  • Age: 57 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Tula, Russia

Irina Kirillova won an Olympic gold medal for the Soviet Union while playing competitive volleyball and later represented Croatia. She represented Croatia on the women's national volleyball team in the 1990s. Kirillova was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2017.

11. Tijana Bošković

beautiful female volleyball players
Tijana Boskovic of Serbia after the Final match between Brazil and Serbia on Day 20 of the FIVB Volleyball Womens World Championship. Photo by Rene Nijhuis/Orange Pictures/BSR Agency
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Tijana Bošković
  • Date of birth: 8th March 1997
  • Age: 25 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tijana Bošković led the Serbian women's national volleyball team in scoring her first appearance at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship and the 2017 Women's European Volleyball Championship. She has been playing for Eczacıbaşı VitrA since the 2015–16 season.

10. Fabiana Oliveira

women volleyball players
Fabiana Oliveira of Brazil posing for pictures outdoors. Photo: @fabialvim
Source: UGC
  • Full name: Fabiana Alvim de Oliveira
  • Date of birth: 7th March 1980
  • Age: 43 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Fabiana Oliveira is a former player who won the gold medal in the Summer Olympics in 2008 and 2012. She began playing volleyball at 13 and soon developed a preference for defence, eventually moving on to the libero position. In 2012, she received her initial call-up to the Brazil women's national team.

9. Sheilla Castro

best female volleyball player of all time
Sheilla Castro De Paula Blassioli gestures during the women's quarter-final volleyball match between Brazil and China at the Maracanazinho stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: @KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Sheilla Castro de Paula Blassioli
  • Date of birth: 1st July 1983
  • Age: 39 years (as of 2022)
  • Place of birth: Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Sheilla Castro competed for her nation at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. The Brazilian team won the gold medal in both events. She also participated in the Olympics in 2016, when Brazil finished in fifth place. She retired on 9th April 2022.

8. Thaisa Menezes

women volleyball players
Thaisa of Brazil in action during the match between Brazil and Serbia on day 3 the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix at Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo @Alexandre Loureiro/Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Thaísa Daher de Menezes
  • Date of birth: 15th May 1987
  • Age: 35 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Thaisa Menezes won back-to-back gold medals at the Olympics in 2008 and 2012. She is frequently mentioned as one of the finest Brazilian volleyball players of all time and has won multiple Best Spiker and Best Blocker Awards.

7. Yevgeniya Artamonova-Estes

  • Full name: Yevgeniya Viktorovna Estes
  • Date of birth: 17th July 1975
  • Age: 47 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Yekaterinburg, Russia

Yevgeniya Viktorovna Estes is a Russian volleyball player who was a member of the national team and one of only two volleyball players that competed consecutively in six Olympic Games. She won silver medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

6. Lioubov Sokolova

beautiful female volleyball players
Lyubov Sokolova during the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship at Irina Viner-Usmanova Gymnastics Palace in Moscow. Photo: @Pavel Pavlov
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Lyubov Vladimirovna Sokolova
  • Date of birth: 4th December 1977
  • Age: 45 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Moscow, Russia

Lioubov Sokolova is a retired player who was a part of the national squad that took home silver at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, bronze at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 World Championships in Japan.

5. Brenda Castillo

best female volleyball player of all time
Brenda Castillo celebrates during the Volleyball Italian Serie A1 Women match Savino Del Bene Scandicci vs Megabox Ond. Savio Vallefoglia in Italy. Photo: @Lisa Guglielmi/LiveMedia/NurPhoto
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Brenda Castillo
  • Date of birth: 5th June 1992
  • Age: 30 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic

Brenda Castillo is a volleyball player from the Dominican Republic. She plays as a libero and was a member of the Dominican Republic national team that won fifth place in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

4. Hélia Souza

best female volleyball player of all time
Hélia Souza of Brazil in action during the friendly volleyball game between Germany and Brazil at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany. Photo: @Thomas Niedermueller.
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Hélia Rogério de Souza
  • Date of birth: 10th March 1970
  • Age: 53 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil

Hélia Souza competed for her country's national team in five consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1992. She won a gold medal in 2008 and won a bronze medal in 1996 and 2000. Her nickname is Fofão.

3. Ting Zhu

best female volleyball player of all time
Zhu Ting of the China women's volleyball team training at Hong Kong Coliseum for the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong. Photo: @Nora Tam/South China Morning Post
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Zhu Ting
  • Date of birth: 29th November 1994
  • Age: 30 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Dancheng County, Zhoukou, China

Ting Zhu is an outside hitter for the Chinese women's national team. From 2016 until 2019, she played for Istanbul. Currently, she represents the Italian team Savino del Bene Scandicci. Ting Zhu is regarded as one of the greatest and most decorated indoor volleyball players in history.

2. Yekaterina Gamova

top female volleyball players
Ekaterina Gamova celebrates a set win with her teammates in the fourth set against Italy during Women's Volleyball on Day 9 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Earls Court. Photo: @Elsa/Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Yekaterina Aleksandrovna Gamova
  • Date of birth: 17th October 1980
  • Age: 42 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Chelyabinsk, Russia

Yekaterina Gamova is one of the best female volleyball players of all time. She is a retired player who was a part of the national squad that won silver at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and Sydney in 2000. Gamova has been referred to as the "Queen of Volleyball" due to her size and power at the net.

1. Yeon-Koung Kim

beautiful female volleyball players
Kim Yeon-Koung of Team South Korea looks on after losing to Team Serbia in the Women's Bronze Medal Match on day sixteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Photo: @Toru Hanai/Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
  • Full name: Kim Yeon-Koung
  • Date of birth: 26th February 1988
  • Age: 35 years (as of 2023)
  • Place of birth: Ansan-si, South Korea

Kim Yeon-Koung is arguably the world's no. 1 female volleyball player. She was a member and captain of the South Korean national team until August 2021. She was an outside hitter and the first volleyball player in Asian history to win the CEV Women's Champions League MVP title.

Recap of the best women volleyball players

Rank

Name

1

Yeon-Koung Kim

2

Yekaterina Gamova

3

Ting Zhu

4

Hélia Souza

5

Brenda Castillo

6

Lioubov Sokolova

7

Yevgeniya Artamonova-Estes

8

Thaisa Menezes

9

Sheilla Castro

10

Fabiana Oliveira

11

Tijana Bošković

12

Irina Kirillova

13

Eda Erdem Dündar

14

Monica De Gennaro

15

Fabiana Claudino

16

Gabriela Guimarães

17

Natália Pereira

18

Milena Rašić

19

Yelena Godina

20

Yelizaveta Tishchenko

21

Kerri Walsh Jennings

22

Gabrielle Reece

23

Zehra Güneş

24

Winifer Fernandez

25

Misty May-Treanor

How much do professional women volleyball players make?

The salaries earned by professional women volleyball players vary depending on their level of experience and the teams they are signed with.

Who is the best female volleyball player?

Yeon-Koung Kim is arguably the best female volleyball player ever. Before retiring in 2021, she was a member and captain of the South Korean national team.

Who is the no 1 women volleyball player in the world?

Yeon-Koung Kim is arguably the no 1 women volleyball player in the world. She was the first volleyball player in Asian history to win the CEV Women's Champions League MVP title.

The best women volleyball players have recorded impressive results in their careers. Some of them have retired from the sport, but their legacy speaks for them.

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Sprtsbrief.com recently published a list of the best indoor sports and games in the world. Indoor games are often played under a roof with particular sizes of audiences on the watch.

They involve less stamina as most require athletes' minds and skills to play most of them. Some indoor sports activities for adults include chess, Ludo, Carrom, puzzle, card games, board games, and table tennis.

Authors
Kenneth Mwenda photo
Kenneth Mwenda
Kenneth Mwenda is a business and sports writer with over five years of experience. At Sportsbrief, he contributes to writing biographies and listicles.
Cyprine Apindi photo
Cyprine Apindi
Cyprine Apindi is a content creator and reporter with over 4 years of experience based in Kenya. She holds a Diploma in Mass Communication from Kenyatta University.