USWNT defender Naomi Girma has completed her move from the San Diego Wave to Chelsea and become the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history.
The Athletic reported earlier this week that Chelsea had agreed terms with the Wave for the transfer of Girma for a record $1.1million fee, according to sources briefed on the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The 24-year-old had been under contract at San Diego until 2026, which is why the deal required a fee, and this has made her the first $1million-plus women’s soccer player.
The deal surpasses the previous record sum of €735,000 paid by Bay FC for Zambia forward Racheal Kundananji from Madrid CFF in February 2024.
Girma attracted considerable interest from elsewhere in Europe, with eight-time European champions Lyon tabling a $1m offer of their own.
GO DEEPER
The first $1m female footballer will be a defender and that feels just right
“I’m so happy and really excited to be here,” Girma told the Chelsea website. “It doesn’t feel real.
“There are a lot of things about Chelsea that made me want to come here — the culture, the winning mentality, staff and players. It’s a top environment to learn and grow in.
“Right now, that’s what I’m looking to do. It was an easy choice for me.”
Girma was presented on the Stamford Bridge pitch ahead of their Women’s Super League game against Arsenal (Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)
The Wave were prepared to lose the center-back for the 2025 season, having signed 17-year-old Trinity Armstrong out of the University of North Carolina to a three-year deal last week.
Girma joined the Wave as the first pick in the 2022 NWSL draft after playing for Stanford at the collegiate level. She was named NSWL defender of the year in 2022 and 2023 and was part of the Wave side that won the NWSL Shield in 2023.
Chelsea have now added further depth at centre-back after losing Canada international Kadeisha Buchanan to an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in December.
Sonia Bompastor’s side lead the Women’s Super League and have progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League — the one competition they are yet to win.
Analysis from The Athletic’s senior soccer writer Jeff Rueter
When the U.S. won 2024 Olympic gold, Girma’s praises were sung as loudly as those of the side’s attacking trio of Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson.
Even with the advancement of modern metrics, it is difficult to quantify the extent of a defender’s value in numbers. Instead, a combination of data, the eye test and expert endorsement helped drive one point home: Girma had quickly entered her position’s highest echelon.
“She’s the best defender I’ve ever seen,” U.S. head coach Emma Hayes, formerly manager of Chelsea, said after a shutout Olympic semifinal victory against Germany. “Ever. She’s got everything: poise, composure, she defends, she anticipates, she leads.”
In that Germany win, Girma had a higher number of completed passes than any other player even attempted. She locked down Germany’s attackers whenever they neared the final third. She carried the ball for 687 meters, 24 per cent of the USWNT’s combined distance, giving crucial time for her teammates to make off-ball movements.
For now, Girma is in a class of her own. She is, by many people’s estimation, the best player at her position in the women’s game worldwide. That status also vaults her into the broader conversation about the sport’s greatest players. And on that front, she’s heading towards being among the best in USWNT history.
GO DEEPER
Who is Naomi Girma? USWNT defender to break $1m transfer mark with Chelsea move
How does Girma’s fee compare to others in women’s soccer?
Girma’s fee marks the fourth time the women’s transfer record has been broken in less than three years. It was broken twice in the space of a month in 2024.
It also marks the third time Chelsea have signed a player for women’s transfer record fee, following the additions of Mayra Ramirez from Levante in 2022 and Pernille Harder from Wolfsburg in 2020.
GO DEEPER
The women’s world transfer record has been broken three times in 18 months. Is that good or bad?
Analysis from The Athletic’s tactics writer Michael Cox
Ordinarily, it takes a few games to realise the full ability of a centre-back, but something about Girma is different. An excellent reader of the game, good at covering space in behind and capable of battling physically without leaning on physicality, she seems the complete defender.
Perhaps the only thing she lacks is true aerial dominance. At 1.68m (5ft 6in) tall, she’s not a towering presence and she won only 51.5 per cent of her aerial battles in the NWSL last season, which isn’t a particularly reassuring figure for a centre-back. But the fact she can dominate her own penalty box despite that relative lack of aerial power almost adds to her aura.
It also says something about the development of the women’s game overall. Whereas the men’s game has steadily weaned itself off a diet of long balls and crosses, the women’s game has evolved in a different way, more based around attacking on the ground through technique or speed. There are only around 75 per cent as many aerial battles in the Women’s Super League compared to the Premier League, for example.
Being the most valuable footballer in the world doesn’t translate to being the outright best footballer, of course. Still, centre-backs feel unusually prominent. Even before Girma’s move, 10 of the 50 most expensive transfers in the women’s game involved defenders, compared to just six of the top 50 most expensive transfers in the men’s game.
For once, the next generation of footballers might just grow up wanting to play in defence.
(Top photo: Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images)
