The first million-dollar transfer in women's soccer is a fact. The 24-year-old American Naomi Girma is moving from San Diego Wave FC to Chelsea FC for a record fee of 1.1 million dollars.
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- The US-American Naomi Girma is the most expensive female soccer player in the world.
- Chelsea paid the equivalent of around one million francs for the 24-year-old Olympic champion.
Naomi Girma was voted the best defender in the US NWSL 2022 and 2023 and won Olympic gold with the US national team in the summer of 2024. Long regarded as one of the best defenders in the world, she is now also the most expensive.
Chelsea, leaders of the Women's Super League and Champions League quarter-finalists, have paid the equivalent of one million francs to San Diego to release the 24-year-old from her contract, which runs until 2026, and lure her to London.
After winning the Olympic Games, national coach Emma Hayes said that Girma was the best defender she had ever seen. And that's saying something. A few months later, Hayes herself was named the best coach in the world for the second time in her career. Hayes was coach of Chelsea from 2012 until the summer of 2024, leading her team to seven league titles during that time and reaching the 2021 Champions League final.
The previous record transfer fee in women's football was the equivalent of around CHF 750,000, which US club Bay FC spent on Zambian striker Racheal Kundananji in 2024. A player from whom Zambia's national coach, Switzerland's Nora Häuptle, also has high hopes.
