Women’s soccer transfer record: Naomi Girma leads list with $1.1 million fee

United States defender Naomi Girma has become women’s soccer’s first million-dollar player.

The 24-year-old Girma completed her move from San Diego Wave to Chelsea for a reported 900,000 pounds ($1.1 million) on Sunday.

Here’s a look at how the record transfer fee (in USD) in the women’s game has increased over the course of the century:

2002: Milene Domingues, $310,000

The Brazilian midfielder moved from Fiammamonza in Italy to Rayo Vallecano in Spain for $310,000, a clear record at the time. Domingues wasn’t the most distinguished player at the time of her transfer. She changed clubs to be closer to her then-husband, soccer legend Ronaldo, who left Inter Milan to join Real Madrid in 2002. 

Domingues actually never played for Rayo Vallecano. Clubs weren’t allowed to play foreign players at the time due to Spanish FA rules. So, she went back to Fiammamonza. 

Domingues’ transfer fee record was intact for 18 years before Denmark forward Pernille Harder left German side Wolfsburg to join Chelsea in England for $355,000 (300,000 euros). In her four seasons with Wolfsburg, Harder won UEFA Women’s Player of the Year twice, leading her club to the Champions League final in both seasons.

Harder continued to play at a high level for Chelsea, helping the squad win the FA Women’s Super League and FA Cup in all three seasons she was there. She was dealt a thigh injury that required surgery and sidelined her for five months in her final season at Chelsea, but she eventually returned to help dish out the assist for the game-winning goal in the FA Cup final. She scored 24 goals in 48 matches with Chelsea. 

Harder’s record didn’t last anywhere near as long as Domingues’. England midfielder Keira Walsh moved from Manchester City in England to Barcelona in Spain for $513,000 (400,000 pounds), with Chelsea also playing a role in the pursuit of the star. 

As Walsh helped England win the Euros a couple of months prior to her move, she had also helped Man City win the FA Women’s League Cup and finish as the runner-up in the Women’s FA Cup earlier that year. She won eight total league titles during her time at Manchester City.

Walsh has had similar club success with Barcelona. She helped it win the Champions League in each of her first two years with the club, adding two Liga F titles. 

Chelsea set the transfer fee record again in 2024 when it picked up Colombian forward Mayra Ramirez from Spain’s Levante in a deal worth $542,000 (500,000 euros).

Ramirez, who was 24 at the time, had Colombia reach the quarterfinals in the World Cup the previous summer and had scored 22 goals in 38 matches with Levante. She’s had some similar success so far playing with Chelsea, recording 11 goals in 30 matches with the English club. She was a part of its Super League-winning squad in 2023-24, which helped her win the EFE Trophy for Best Ibero-American Player that season.

An NWSL club quickly took the record for the largest transfer fee in women’s soccer history just a month after Chelsea recaptured it. Zambian striker Rachael Kundananji moved from Madrid CFF in Spain to Bay FC in the United States for $788,000.

Kundananji was a dominant striker at Madrid CFF, scoring 33 goals in her 43 caps with the club. Internationally, she had helped Zambia pick up an upset win over eventual champion Spain in the 2023 World Cup with her goal in its group play match.

So, as she was just 23 at the time, Bay FC decided to make a huge splash ahead of its inaugural season, making her the first African player (men’s or women’s) to set a transfer fee record. She wound up scoring two goals in 12 matches in her first season with Bay FC, who gave her a four-year deal. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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