France announced its arrival as a power in women's soccer at the 2011 World Cup, and Louisa Necib was pulling all the strings. Playing with an impudence that defines many of the game's most exciting players, Necib appears to think there is no pass too outrageous, no hole too small to thread with a perfectly played pass. She is the axis around which the French team revolves, and from whom its most incisive attacks are often begun. Many liken her to a female Zinedine Zidane, the legendary World Cup winner – a comparison strengthened by the fact that she, too, has Algerian roots.
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