Alisha Lehmann Has 16 Million Followers and a Point to Prove at Leicester

The Most-Followed Female Footballer in the World Is Tired of the TikTok Stereotype

If you think Alisha Lehmann spends her evenings pointing at captions and doing trending dances, she would very much like a word. The 27-year-old Swiss forward, who joined Leicester City in January 2026, is the most-followed female footballer on the planet, and she is well aware that some people think that is all she is.

Spoiler: it is not.

The Numbers Behind the Name

Lehmann commands nearly 16 million Instagram followers and 11.8 million on TikTok. For context, England internationals Chloe Kelly and Alessia Russo reportedly sit at around 1.5 million and 1.1 million respectively. Even retired USWNT legend Alex Morgan is thought to have roughly 9 million. In other words, Lehmann is not just ahead of the pack; she is in a different postcode entirely.

Yet the conversation around her rarely starts with football. It starts with content. It starts with follower counts. It starts with the assumption that she must be more influencer than athlete. She has heard it all, and she has had to learn to cope with it.

A Career That Speaks for Itself

Here is the bit the critics tend to skip. Lehmann has 66 international caps for Switzerland, having earned her first as a teenager back in 2017. She has spent six years in the Women's Super League across spells at West Ham, Everton, and Aston Villa, reportedly racking up around 108 WSL appearances, 19 goals, and 10 assists along the way. Stints at Juventus and FC Como in Italy broadened her experience further before she returned to England this winter.

Her move to Leicester came on a two-and-a-half year deal running until summer 2028, and it was no vanity signing. The Foxes are deep in a relegation scrap this season, and manager Rick Passmoor has been vocal about what Lehmann brings to the squad. He has called her "absolutely incredible" and pointedly praised her professionalism over her commercial profile.

In her three WSL outings for Leicester so far, she has clocked 238 minutes without finding a goal or an assist. Early days, clearly, but the scrutiny that comes with her profile means patience is a luxury the public rarely extends.

Football First, Content Second

What makes the TikTok criticism particularly ironic is that academic research has actually examined Lehmann's content strategy. A study published by IGI Global found that her athletic and professional posts consistently drive the highest engagement. In plain English: people follow her because of the football, not in spite of it.

That rather undercuts the narrative that she is some sort of social media tourist who happens to own a pair of boots. Lehmann has built a brand, yes, but it is anchored in the sport. The two are not mutually exclusive, no matter how uncomfortable that makes certain corners of the internet.

Why This Matters Beyond Leicester

Women's football is growing at pace, and visibility is a massive part of that growth. Lehmann's reach introduces the WSL to audiences who might never stumble across it otherwise. Dismissing that as trivial because it comes wrapped in a TikTok video feels shortsighted at best and gatekeeping at worst.

Leicester need results. Lehmann needs time to settle. And the wider footballing world could do with retiring the lazy assumption that a woman cannot be both massively popular online and genuinely committed to her craft. The evidence suggests she is managing both just fine.

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