Ana-Maria Crnogorčević (born 3 October 1990) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a winger or right-back for Seattle Reign FC and the Switzerland national team. A fast player with good heading ability, she is considered one of Switzerland's most talented footballers.

Early and personal life

Ana-Maria Crnogorčević was born on 3 October 1990 in Steffisburg, by Lake Thun in the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

of Switzerland, to

Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

parents from Ruma, in Vojvodina, with origins in Drniš, Croatia. She has dual nationality and considers herself both Swiss and Croatian; her first language was Croatian. She speaks many languages and received scorn from some rival fans while playing for

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and responding in Catalan to a question asked in Spanish. Crnogorčević has a sister and was raised Catholic.

Club career

Crnogorčević began her club career with FC Steffisburg at age 11. In 2004, she moved to FC Rot-Schwarz Thun, then later to FC Thun. In 2009, she helped Rot-Schwarz win the Swiss Cup final. Crnogorčević scored a hat-trick in the 8–0 win over FC Schlieren. She was the top-scorer with 24 goals in 16 games in the Nationalliga A. In September 2009 she joined German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

team

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. She made her debut for HSV on 27 September, scoring in a 3–2 win against SG Essen-Schönebeck. Crnogorčević finished her first season in Germany with eight goals from 19 appearances. For the 2011–12 season she moved to 1. FFC Frankfurt, with which she won the Champions League in 2015. She signed with Portland Thorns FC ahead of the 2018 National Women's Soccer League season. In December 2019, Crnogorčević signed with

. She won the Champions League with Barcelona in the 2020–21 and 2022–23 seasons. On 5 August 2024, Seattle Reign FC announced that they had signed Crnogorčević from Spanish club Atlético Madrid through the 2025 season for an undisclosed transfer fee. Crnogorčević made her debut for the club on 25 August 2024, starting and playing 75 minutes in a 1-0 victory against North Carolina Courage.

International career

Youth

Aged 17, she scored 25 goals in 29 games for the Switzerland U19 team. At the 2009 UEFA U19 Championship in Belarus, she reached the semi-final with her team. She was selected in the U20 for the 2012 U20 World Cup in Japan. She played in all three matches but was eliminated in the group stage.

Senior

Crnogorčević was approached to play for

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

when she was 17; though raised with Croatian culture, she always wanted to play for Switzerland. On 12 August 2009, she made her debut for the Swiss senior team in a friendly against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. In August 2010, she scored five goals in an 8–0 World Cup qualifying win over

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Crnogorčević succeeded with the Swiss national team in qualifying for the 2017 European Championship in the Netherlands, where she was top scorer with seven goals. On 4 June 2016, she surpassed previous Swiss all-time goalscorer Lara Dickenmann by adding two goals in a qualifier against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. At the European Championship, she scored a goal in the 1–1 draw with

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, but her team was eliminated after the group stage. In the subsequent qualification for the 2019 World Cup, she scored two goals in eleven games. However, the Swiss did not qualify this time because they lost in the last play-off round against European champions

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. On 13 April 2021, she converted her team's last penalty to 3–2 in the second leg of qualifying play-off for the Euro 2022 against the Czech Republic, succeeding in qualifying for the Euro finals. In the first leg, she scored the goal for the 1–1 equaliser with a penalty in the 90th minute. In all, she scored six goals in qualifying, once again being her team's top scorer. On 30 June 2022, Crnogorčević matched Lara Dickenmann's national cap record with her 135th international match in the 4–0 defeat in the European Championship preparatory game against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. At the European Championship in 2022, she played in all three group games in the starting line-up. Switzerland was eliminated after the preliminary round.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Crnogorčević goal.''

Honours

FC Rot-Schwarz Thun * Swiss Cup: 2009 FFC Frankfurt * DFB-Pokal: 2013–14 * UEFA Women's Champions League: 2014–15 Barcelona * Primera División: 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23 * UEFA Women's Champions League: 2020–21, 2022–23, runner-up: 2021–22 * Copa de la Reina: 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22 * Supercopa Femenina: 2019–20, 2021–22, 2022–23 Individual * Swiss Nationalliga A top scorer: 2009

References

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Ana-Maria Crnogorčević
at FC Barcelona
Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic
at Seattle Reign FC
Ana-Maria Crnogorčević
at BDFutbol
Hamburger SV women's team

Interview at dfb.de

in Bild {{DEFAULTSORT:Crnogorcevic, AnaMaria 1990 births Living people Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Croatian expatriate women's footballers Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swiss expatriate women's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain People from Thun District Women's Super League (Switzerland) players Hamburger SV (women) players Eintracht Frankfurt (women) players Swiss people of Croatian descent Switzerland women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's association football forwards Frauen-Bundesliga players National Women's Soccer League players Portland Thorns FC players FIFA Women's Century Club FC Barcelona Femení players Atlético Madrid Femenino players Footballers from the canton of Bern UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players Seattle Reign FC players Swiss expatriate sportspeople in the United States Croatian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players 21st-century Swiss sportswomen