England's Lucy Bronze and US star Megan Rapinoe are among five star players who have been nominated for the BBC's Footballer of the Year award.

The players selected have broken records, won World Cups and campaigned for equal pay.

Here are the nominees and what they've achieved this year.

Lucy Bronze had a great World Cup with England and won the domestic double with her club Lyon, who also won the Champions League with the French side.

She was runner-up for the prestigious Ballon d'Or award and the World Cup golden ball. Over the last year Bronze has said her biggest achievement was winning the Champions League.

"Winning the Champions League final, that was special. Although it's my second Champions League final, the first time I wasn't convinced by my own performance. But this year I was happy with how I performed and the team performed. 

"It's the marquee game and you want to put on a good show for women's football - so that was a huge highlight. That first half I smiled all the way through."

Arsenal and Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema has had a great year and is viewed as one of the world's best at the moment.

She won the Women's Super League with the Gunners and finished the season as the team's top goalscorer. She also became The Netherlands' all-time leading goal scorer, male or female, as she took her tally to 69.

Her form has also seen her profile rise dramatically back home.

"I can't go out on the streets without being recognised, which is one of the steps that we've always wanted, that women's football has always wanted. It's massive - you can't compare it to before, like right now I think it's calmed down a bit because we've not had something for a while but especially with the Olympics coming up it's only going to be bigger again."

Megan Rapinoe has become a huge star since the World Cup and not just for her performances on the pitch.

Her US team won the World Cup under her captaincy and she also won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball at the tournament.

She has also won big in the awards season, picking up the Ballon d'Or, FIFA's Women's Player of the Year, Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year to name but a few. Rapinoe has said that winning gold again at the Olympics is her ambition in football now.

"Nobody's ever had World Cup and Olympics back-to-back wins, so it's very difficult for a reason. You know once you win a World Cup, there's a million things you have to do - celebrating. You don't have that moment after the World Cup where you're like 'I'm going to win the Olympics and like nothing else matters'. So that would be incredible."

Sam Kerr broke records at the World Cup as she became the first Australian to score a hat-trick at the tournament.

She also finished the National Women's Soccer League as their top goalscorer with 18 goals before she transferred to WSL side Chelsea.

Kerr has said she moved to Chelsea to win trophies.

"I want to win trophies, that's part of the reason why I'm at Chelsea. I've always missed out - it feels like I've lost in the final a million times. [Chelsea] needed those extra few pieces to really become a title team and they've been absolutely killing it without me so my plan is to slide in as easy as I can and hopefully win some trophies with them. I don't care what trophy it is, I just want to win one!"

Julie Ertz was a part of the US' World Cup winning team and was named US soccer female player of the year.

She has said her memory of the World Cup final is of the whistle blowing and the look on her team-mates faces.

"The whistle blowing! You kind of black out a bit as I was so much in the moment, that I was waiting for us to score - 'we got this, we're in this'. 

"So once we got the first goal then I was looking at everyone's face, the same facial expression as 2015, be calm collected. I could probably recite every play to you, I've watched it so many times - but the memory is my team-mates' faces."