According to the internet, Switzerland’s Tägertschi, with a population just over 400, didn’t have a whole lot going for it (besides the views, of course). Just 22 miles from Bern, most people had no reason to visit — or know about it at all. That is, until Alisha Lehmann came along. Now, Tägertschi is known as the birthplace of a soccer star, the kind who transcends her chosen sport. Not only has she scored nearly 80 goals over the decade since she began her career, Lehmann has gained a unique place in fans’ hearts for her on-and-off-pitch persona. Called the “sexiest footballer alive” by fans, she’s never not in full glam, even when on the pitch. Lehmann is hands-down the most-popular female soccer player on social media, with 28 million fans across platforms — dwarfing the next most followed, Alexia Putellas, whose total comes to a lowly 4.5 million.
Lehmann has come a long way since childhood. She was a countryside kid, playing outside with her brother, two sisters and cousins, with parents who weren’t the clapping-on-the-sideline type. “Because there were four kids in our family, we always had to do things by ourselves,” she said. “My mum was not the biggest fan of football, so most of the time, I just went alone to training with my bike and I went alone to the games, so it was just normal.”
In 2016, Lehmann went pro. She would play for six clubs before landing on Leicester City as a forward earlier this year. Although the team is on a bad run, she scored a clinical tap-in against Aston Villa in March, giving fans plenty to hope for. In a 2025 YouTube compilation called “Alisha Lehmann Goals You Have To See Again,” you can see the pace she takes, running at defenders, a lethal right foot in front of a goal and her trademark platinum-blonde ponytail swinging.
Still, the club’s standing is shaky. At the time of writing, with three games to go, it faced relegation from the UK’s top-flight Women’s Super League (WSL), meaning the club would play in the FA Women’s Championship for the first time since 2021.
From Junior to Jetset
“I was always fast… I scored a lot of goals,” said Lehmann of her formative soccer memories. Even as a kid, she said, the instinct to score goals was what drove her. “And I liked the feeling of being successful. [Because I was] young, I had a good mindset that only cared about football. That gave me so much power to reach more. At one point, it becomes a kind of addiction,” she said, “because you want more and more and more. You want to be better, better, better.”
As she got older, her drive became clear to those around her. She was different from her siblings. “We did a lot of sports when we were young, and then they all stopped. And I enjoyed it so much, so I didn’t want to stop, and I just continued.” By age seven, she started to play with FC Konolfingen, a team a short bicycle ride away. After being spotted by a scout at age 12, she joined BSC YB Frauen, the women’s team in Bern. And in 2016, when she was 17, her professional career began. Inspired by heroes like Cristiano Ronaldo, Alex Morgan and Marta, Lehmann stood out immediately. By the end of her first season, she had become the club’s top scorer.
Lehmann was cognizant early on that Switzerland, though it would always be home, wasn’t the place for her future as a soccer player. It was on her first trip with the national team, to Japan, that she knew. “I just fell in love with the game,” she said. “And then I was like, ‘I believe in myself, if I want [to] achieve more, I need to leave Switzerland and go to England.’”
Growing Up Fast
Though England’s Premier League has long been known as the best in men’s domestic soccer, the women’s game has been rising over the last decade. And 2018, when Lehmann joined West Ham, would prove to be a pivotal year for her and for the WSL. That was the year the league became professional. Rush Green Road, the women’s ground in East London, became Lehmann’s new home. “I think it was the best thing I have ever done,” she said of the transfer. “It was a big, big risk. I remember so many people told me ‘No, it’s too early,’ [but] then I just did it.”
There were challenges, too. Lehmann didn’t speak much English. She leaned on her coach and mentor, Matt Beard, the pioneering women’s soccer manager. “He helped me because my English was so bad when I came to England and I struggled so much,” she said. “After training, sometimes I went to his office, and we used Google Translate. He helped me with everything, literally.” Tragically, in 2025, Beard died, but remains an important figure for Lehmann.“He was my first coach as a professional player, he gave me so much confidence,” she said.
Despite the learning curve of adjusting to a new language and country, Lehmann’s star continued to rise. She ended up becoming a regular starter for the club over three years, scoring 14 goals and helping the team reach the final of the FA Cup.
Leaving West Ham in 2021, she went on to play with Everton and Aston Villa, then moved to Italy, playing for Como and Juventus, where she won the title. Meanwhile, women’s soccer had exploded. Now, games are televised. In the UK, matches see record-breaking attendance, no small part thanks to England’s Lionesses winning back-to-back European Championships in 2022 and 2025.
A New Game, a New Public to Please
Lehmann’s pay reflects the changes seen in the women’s game. “I think in my first contract, I earned £1,600 ($2,100) a month or something,” she said. “But I tried to survive somehow…. When you love something so much, you don’t really care about the money, you don’t care about how rich you’re going to be; it was the feeling, the enjoyment when you score.” If that feeling remains, the conditions have, happily, improved. “Now, we play in the men’s stadiums, [and] the salaries are way higher,” said Lehmann. “You get looked after so well.”
With the new visibility of female soccer players came a new strata of fans — those who want to know about life off the pitch as well as on. Lehmann points to Alex Morgan as a pioneer in this space and one of the first women soccer players to share her life on Instagram. When Lehmann started her Instagram and TikTok in 2019 in 2021 (and, later, her TikTok in 2023), she took notes. If Morgan provides a wholesome family-friendly vibe, Lehmann’s take is more That Girl. Followers get a dose of glamor alongside soccer, evening outfits and keepie-uppies by the pool. They’ll see match wins and bikinis in “life lately” videos, Lehmann with friends in the back of cars, BTS from photo shoots and — occasionally — a love interest.
Social media allows her to express a different side to her personality. “On the pitch, I just want to perform. I want to score goals and that’s what I focus on,” she said. “At the end of the day, how you look is your choice. I like to be a girly girl, I like to do my hair, my makeup and all that stuff, my nails. Everyone is a person, everyone has a choice of what they do in life.”
This comes with its own set of hurdles, of course. As a public figure, Lehmann is a regular target for criticism. Particularly when her team is not performing well. In March 2026, she told BBC News, “Sometimes, it’s frustrating. People don’t see the work that I put in. They think I just train and then go home to make TikToks — it’s not true. I’m very professional. I always give everything on the pitch and I want to be the best.”
However, she expressed nothing but gratitude toward her fans. What does she think of being called the “world’s sexiest footballer”? “I never really thought about it, to be honest, but if people think so, then thank you so much,” she said.
Off the Pitch Glam
Lehmann’s self-identified girly girl nature means she loves fashion, counting Louis Vuitton, Dior and Amiri as favorite labels. In January, just after she joined Leicester, she was asked to attend the Amiri show. She’d been in Milan when staff at an Amiri store recognized her. The show clearly dazzled her. “The setting, the clothes, everything was so nice,” she said. Her own catwalk moment is on the bucket list. “I would love to walk in a fashion show,” she said.
This love-in is, of course, relatively new. Until recently, and beyond David Beckham, soccer players were not on the radar of luxury brands. Then, around 2018, players like Héctor Bellerín, Jules Koundé, Leah Williamson and Mary Fowler made inroads modeling and showcasing impressive personal style. “It was two different worlds, [but] football players have got more stylish, they wear more brands,” said Lehmann. “I think it goes together well. It’s cool when you dress well and take care of yourself.”
While Lehmann is still very much focused on the pitch, there are signs she is thinking about what happens when she hangs up her boots. She has launched her own luxury watch with Tismo Geneve, and she’s on Fanvue, the subscription fan service for content. “It’s a way to connect with my fans and let them see what I do off the pitch, on photo shoots and just fun stuff on holiday and with my friends,” she said. “There are going to be a lot more fun things coming in the future.”
And with summer here, (and without a women’s tournament) Lehmann is heading to LA, hoping to catch a men’s World Cup game. Who does she think will win? “Well, of course I hope Switzerland will,” she laughed. Whatever the result, Lehmann’s international success is a story any Swiss national — and any Tägertschi native — can be proud of.
