Christiane Endler

Claudia Christiane Endler Mutinelli (born 23 July 1991) is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as goalkeeper for Première Ligue club Lyon. She has previously played for Colo-Colo, Valencia, Paris Saint-Germain, and the University of South Florida.

Endler is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. In all seasons from 2019 to 2022 she was among the three finalists nominated for Best Women's Goalkeeper at the Best FIFA Football Awards. She won the award in 2021.

Early life Endler was born in Santiago, Chile, to a Chilean mother with Italian ancestry and a German father. From childhood, Endler showed talent for sports, playing tennis, swimming, hockey, basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics before dedicating herself full time to football. Throughout her youth, she played as a forward, but when she was 15, Endler had trials with the Chile U17 national team. Because of her height, former Chilean goalkeeper and then-coach Marco Cornez advised her to switch her position to goalkeeper. In 2014, she helped lead the Bulls to a regular season conference championship.

During her fall break in 2012, Colo-Colo were playing the Copa Libertadores, so she very briefly went on loan to compete in the beginning stages of the tournament. The following month in June, she announced her departure from Colo-Colo, opting to go to the United States and pursue a college education.

In 2012, while still in college, Endler took advantage of her brief fall break to participate in her third Libertadores final in a row. Luckily for her, the match went to penalties after regulation time. Endler had anticipated the probability of a penalty shootout and reviewed strategy with her coach the day before. Chilean publication Dale Albo cites this victory as a turning point for women's football in Chile, allowing other women's clubs to establish themselves and find success in the tournament.

2014: Short-lived stint with Chelsea In 2014, Endler was signed by Chelsea. She made her WSL Cup debut in a 5–1 win against Watford and was in goal for another WSL Cup against Millwall. Endler was having a convincing start to her season, but due to the newfound intensity of training and workouts, she began feeling discomfort in her knee that developed into a season-ending ruptured meniscus injury. Chelsea offered to extend Endler's contract, but she believed the contract didn't offer enough to sustain the expensive cost of living in England. She also was named to La Liga's team of the season by a fan vote of 5,400.

2017–2021: Rise to international fame with PSG

Her performances with Valencia attracted the attention of Paris Saint-Germain, and in July 2017, Endler signed a three-year contract with the French club. The transfer was Valencia's first involving money, valued at 30,000 Euros. She officially debuted in the league for PSG in a 1–0 win against ASPTT Albi. After sharing goalkeeping duties with Katarzyna Kiedrzynek for the first half of the season, she started every league game in the second half of the season. Her only loss as a starter that season came against rivals Lyon. At the end of the 2017–18 Division 1 Féminine, PSG finished in second place, 8 points behind Lyon. Endler conceded just five goals and recorded seven shutouts in 11 matches for that campaign.

Endler had a decisive performance in the 2018 Coupe de France Féminine final, making important saves against Shanice van de Sanden and Dzsenifer Marozsán. PSG won the match 1-0 and earned their second ever major trophy, breaking Lyon's streak of six consecutive Coupe de France Féminine titles. By the end of the 2018-2019 season, Endler conceded just 13 goals in 20 games, maintained the second-best defense in the French league, and was voted the best keeper of the French league in 2019.

Their second-place league finish in 2018 meant Endler was set to make her Champion's League debut the following season. Her debut came in the Round of 32 against Austrian team SKN ST Pölten, where PSG won the match 4-1 and won the tie 6–1 on aggregate. Endler's first Champions League campaign ended in a cruel fashion, where she conceded a 91st-minute goal from Maren Mjelde and lost the quarterfinal tie to her former club, Chelsea.

For her performances with PSG and Chile, she received the second-most votes for 2019 The Best FIFA Goalkeeper awards behind Dutch goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal.

Endler and PSG dominated the 2020–21 season, finishing undefeated with 20 victories and 2 draws; Endler allowed her opponents only 4 goals the entire season. PSG dethroned Lyon's 14-year run of championships, securing PSG's first-ever title in French league on 4 June 2021, the final day of the domestic season.

Shortly thereafter, Endler announced she would not renew her contract with PSG. In January 2022, she was named 2021 Women's Goalkeeper of the Year at the annual FIFA Awards Ceremony.

2022–present: Glory with Lyon On 21 June 2021, Lyon announced the signing of Endler to a three-year contract. With Endler serving as the goalkeeper, the French giant won the 2022 UEFA Women's Champions League Final by beating Barcelona 3–1, making her the first-ever Chilean to win the Women's Champions League.

International career Youth teams In 2008, Endler participated in the first ever edition of the U17 Copa America, hosted in Chile. She was a regular starter, playing all four games of Chile's campaign as they finished third in Group A with five points and exited the tournament.

Endler's second international tournament experience came as a 17-year-old when Chile hosted the 2008 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Prior to the tournament, her starting position was disputed between her and then-Colo-Colo goalkeeper Romina Parraguirre. Endler ended up establishing herself as a starter and played every minute of each of Chile's three group stage matches. Chile finished last in their group and 14th overall, but Endler impressed enough to make the Team of the Tournament. At next year's Pan American Games, Endler conceded only one goal in three games, but Chile only recorded 4 points, exiting the tournament in the group stage.

For the 2014 Copa America, Chile went into the tournament with zero preparation matches and subsequently finished fourth in Group B, where they did not qualify for any upcoming competitive international tournaments.

Throughout the 2010s, there were many times the Chile women's national team did not have official games scheduled, prompting FIFA to deem them inactive and strip the team of their FIFA ranking. In 2011, Chile federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls resigned, which Endler believes was a turn for the worse for women's football in Chile. His successor, Sergio Jadue, who was later banned for life by the FIFA Ethics Committee due to his participation in the 2015 FIFA corruption case, completely neglected women's football in Chile. The Chile women's national team was forced to play in "deplorable conditions' and train with teenage boys. Under Jadue's successor, Arturo Salah, the team received no information about new matches between 2015 and 2017.

2016–2018: Establishment of ANJUFF In 2016, Chile dropped out of the FIFA rankings again, just a year after achieving their best ranking of 41 in 2015. Former footballer and Chilean international Iona Rothfeld, Endler, and a few other Chilean teammates created the ANJUFF (Asociación Nacional de Jugadoras de Fútbol), a Chilean women's footballing union to combat neglect from their federation. ANJUFF received recognition from Chile's athletic unions and FIFPro, and was one of the first efforts to unionize female athletes in Latin America.

2018–2019: Chile's first Women's World Cup

In 2018, thanks to the efforts of ANJUFF,

At the 2019 World Cup, Endler was the captain and highest capped player on Chile's roster. She played every minute of Chile's three group stage matches, making thirteen total saves. In the second group match, Chile played number 1 ranked USWNT who had twenty-six attempts on goal and 9 on target throughout the match. Endler made six saves and despite conceding three goals, her performances against the eventual tournament winners earned herself a Player of the Match award and garnered international attention. In the final match of the group stage with Round of 16 qualification on the line, Chile played Thailand who, a week before, suffered the highest ever margin of defeat in a World Cup tournament, women or men. Endler recorded a shutout in that match, helping her team to their first ever win in a World Cup tournament. Endler questioned Chile coach José Letelier's decisions in the match against Thailand, saying in a post-match interview that she expected players with more experience to get more game time.

In September 2019, Endler won her first title with Chile, the 2019 Torneo Internacional Femenino de São Paulo friendly championship. In the final, they drew with Brazil and in extra time defeated them on penalties, where Endler saved the first penalty, missed a penalty that she took, and then saved another. This was Chile's first time in 13 matches against Brazil where they didn't lose. Endler did not concede a single goal throughout the tournament.

2021: Chile's first Olympics

On 13 April 2021, Chile became the final women's team to qualify for the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics by defeating Cameroon in a pair of matches held in Ankara, Turkey due to COVID travel restrictions.

On 21 April 2021, Chile was drawn into Group E where they will face Great Britain, Canada, and host nation Japan in their round-robin matches on 21/24/27 July 2021; Endler will captain.

2023: Pan American Games She made four appearances at the 2023 Pan American Games, where Chile won the silver medal. At the end of the semi-final match against the United States, she announced her retirement from the national team.

Style of play In the official FIFA report for the 2008 FIFA U-20 World Cup she was listed as one of Chile's standout players, describing her as a "complete, solid all-round goalkeeper with commanding presence, good basic technique who starts build-up play quickly." Former United States goalkeeper Hope Solo described her as "spectacular," "one-in-a-million," and "strong, powerful and quick with excellent positioning ...her ability to read the aerial balls is also top notch. She is a complete goalkeeper." and can speak Spanish, Portuguese, English, German and a bit of French.

Due to her German and Italian heritage, her hero and idol as a child was German footballer and former Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and Italian former goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. Nevertheless, she doesn't speak Italian. She also admired Iker Casillas.

She married Sofía Orozco, who is the daughter of the Chilean singer (stage name of Marco Antonio Orozco), in France in May 2021. They became mothers on 4 March 2026.

Honours South Florida Bulls American Athletic Conference regular season: 2014

Everton Copa Chile Femenina: 2010 Copa Libertadores Femenina runner-up: 2010

Colo-Colo Chilean League Apertura: 2011, 2015 Coupe de France Féminine: 2017–18 Trophée des Championnes: 2022 Coupe de France Féminine: 2022–23

Chile Copa América Femenina runner-up: 2018 IFFHS Women's World Best Goalkeeper: 2021, 2022 The Best FIFA Goalkeeper: 2021 FIFA FIFPro Women's World11: 2020, 2021, 2022 IFFHS CONMEBOL Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020 IFFHS Women's World Team: 2021, 2022 UEFA Women's Champions League Squad of the Season: 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2023–24 Trophées UNFP du football Goalkeeper of the Year: 2020–21, 2021–22 Trophées UNFP du football Team of the Year: 2020–21, 2021–22 Trophées FFF D1 Féminine Goalkeeper of the Year: 2018–19, The same year, the IFFHS voted her as the sixth-best goalkeeper in the world.

For her outstanding play against the United States during the 2019 FIFA World Cup, she was voted Player of the Match. Following the match, legendary goalkeeper Hope Solo went on record to say that Endler "sets the bar very high" and "she shows what goalkeeping should be." She also referred to a quote made by Chelsea coach Emma Hayes that women should have smaller pitches and goals. Solo cited Endler as an example of why that sentiment is "unbelievable." Former USMNT defender Alexi Lalas titled her "the best in the world." Later in the year, she was voted the fifth-best women's goalkeeper of 2019 by IFFHS, behind Sari van Veenendaal, Sarah Bouhaddi, Alyssa Naeher and Hedvig Lindahl. In their brief profile of her, IFFHS predicted that she had the potential to be the best goalkeeper in the world in later years. Endler was also a nominee for the 2019 FIFPRO FIFA Women's World 11.

In 2019, The Guardian listed her as the twenty-fourth best player and second-best goalkeeper in the world in their annual list of the top 100 players, going up 28 ranks from the previous year's list.

Then in 2020, The Guardian listed her as the twenty-second best female player and best female goalkeeper in the world in their annual list of the top 100 players.

In January 2022, she was named the 2021 Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper.