Habibeh Gholami

Towering and relentless, this Iranian defensive midfielder dominates the pitch with an iron will, though she can occasionally be clumsy when timing her standing tackles. To stay centered, she insists on carefully braiding a single blade of grass from the pitch into her laces before kickoff, a ritual her teammates endure with confused but admiring headshakes. Her physical presence and suffocating interceptive play turn every match into a brutal struggle for her opponents.