Some of today’s best young talents are facing off at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2026™, but it was the players’ tomorrows that were the main focus at the FIFA Players Summit and Coaches & Technical Exchange in Rabat, Morocco.

The tournament, which kicked off on 17 October and runs through to 7 November, showcases the quality of the grassroots elite within the women’s game as 24 teams seek to follow Korea DPR in claiming the trophy.

After the tournament ends, however, the goal is for the players to continue their growth, personally and professionally, and ultimately progress to their country’s senior national team.

The summit brought some of those competing in the tournament’s group stage face-to-face with FIFA Legends Shannon MacMillan, April Heinrichs, Mercy Akide and Fatmire Alushi, all of whom have – quite literally – been in their boots and walked the path they hope to follow.

“We didn’t have any of this, and so I just played because I loved the game,” explained Shannon MacMillan, a former US Women’s National Team star who lifted the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in 1999 and claimed gold in the 1996 Olympic Women’s Football Tournament.

“To see how it’s evolved and knowing the difference that soccer made and the impact it had in my life, to now be able to pass it on and help these young players at an even earlier age realise the value of the game, how unique and special this opportunity is, and to give them some tools to really be able to fully embrace it is really powerful.”

“I think it's super important just because they already have been in this atmosphere before and lived it, and so they're able to pass certain knowledge and experiences to us which will help us adapt into this,” said Gabriela Istocki, a member of Canada’s squad at the tournament.

“As a young football player, there is, of course, nothing better than seeing your heroes and seeing how they made it, and getting some good advice,” explained Carolin Braun, FIFA’s Lead of High Performance Expertise. “And this is why, for us, this players’ summit is so important; and for the players as well, as they can then leave with a smile after a loss yesterday, or also feeling more inspired to follow their dreams.”

The tournament sits alongside the FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS) as one of the main vectors for growth by providing young talent with an opportunity to develop and then test themselves against their peers on the global stage.

“In the Talent Development Scheme, we are working with over 200 of our Member Associations on their strategic plans, so we are helping them also to create the environments, that they have more camps on national teams, for example, more scouting for the young players,” said Braun.

“Most of the time we spend with a country is really in what we call the talent development years – 12 to 18 years old,” added April Heinrichs, a member of the USWNT team that won the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 and now a FIFA High Performance Specialist who participated in the summit. “Those are the formative years of development. Those are the formative years of when players start to realise they’re special."

The tournament itself, expanded to 24 teams and made an annual competition from the 2025 edition, also provides coaches with the chance to not only pit themselves against colleagues from around the world, but also – like their players – to learn and improve.

A raft of FIFA initiatives – from mandating a minimum number of female staff on FIFA tournament benches to the FIFA Talent Coaches who build a local high-quality coaching network within a FIFA Member Association – seek to accompany both female and male coaches on their journey and were detailed at the summit.

“We’re having a coaches’ and technical exchange, where we bring all the coaches from the teams together and give them an overview of our support system around, so that they know that FIFA is doing a lot on the technical side to help them,” said Braun after bringing the competition’s tacticians together in the Moroccan capital.

“We’re having not only webinars for preparation, but also, during this tournament, several technical experts are here to visit the training sessions and have conversations with them, to help them not only with the questions they have, but also to support them and to have a look at how they’re doing things.”

Team analysts were also catered for as they were given an overview of how FIFA’s Technical Study Group analyses matches and tournaments while a number of other aspects of the women’s game were addressed. And, of course, there was time for one last piece of advice for the players from those who have already been there and done it.

“I would tell them never to give up, no matter what happens,” said Mercy Akide, a FIFA Legend who played in three FIFA Women’s World Cups for Nigeria. “In everything that everybody does, there will be failure sometimes. Failure in the sense that you might not play a game well or maybe you might have an injury and it will set you back six months, three months, one year. But if you have a dream, keep your dream alive and keep playing.”