The ladies’s switch report had barely moved over the previous few many years however, like London buses, a bunch of main offers have come alongside directly within the final 5 years.
In January 2025, USWNT defender Naomi Girma broke the $1 million barrier when she joined Chelsea from San Diego Wave in a deal value round £900,000 ($1.1m). However then, lower than two months after profitable the UEFA Ladies’s Champions League, Arsenal broke the £1 million barrier to signal striker Olivia Smith from Ladies’s Tremendous League rivals Liverpool for £1.1m ($1.33m.)
And now, Mexico ahead Lizbeth Ovalle has moved the report on once more with a $1.5m switch from Tigres to NWSL aspect Orlando Delight.
Sure, there’s nonetheless a protracted approach to go earlier than we get close to the boys’s report, set by Neymar‘s $241m transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. However the fee at which the ladies’s switch report is being damaged is speedy. Right here is an summary of its evolution and people gamers chargeable for taking it to new ranges.
*All charges are approximate and primarily based on reporting, however unconfirmed by golf equipment
Milene Domingues – Fiammamonza to Rayo Vallecano
$310,000 (€235,000), 2002
Also called “Mika,” the Brazil worldwide grew to become the primary girls’s participant to command a charge above €200,000 when she left Italian membership Fiammamonza to signal for Rayo Vallecano in 2002. The midfielder moved to be along with her then-husband, Selecao legend Ronaldo Nazario, who additionally left Italy for Spain to be able to be a part of Actual Madrid.
Sadly, issues did not pan out attributable to a Spanish FA rule stating that golf equipment have been prohibited from fielding international gamers in aggressive matches. Milene due to this fact by no means performed a single sport for Rayo and as a substitute was given dispensation to fly again to Italy to rejoin Fiammamonza.
Nonetheless, she held on to the world switch report for nearly twenty years.
Pernille Tougher – VfB Wolfsburg to Chelsea
$334,000 (€280,000), 2020
After rising to prominence in Germany with Wolfsburg, the Denmark worldwide grew to become the brand new holder of the report when she departed for Ladies’s Tremendous League giants Chelsea after agreeing a three-year contract in September 2020.
The 2-time UEFA Ladies’s Participant of the Yr subsequently went on to gather three WSL/FA Cup doubles over three consecutive seasons with the Blues, earlier than shifting again to Germany with Bayern Munich in the summertime of 2023.
Keira Walsh – Manchester Metropolis to Barcelona
$470,000 (€400,000), 2022
The England midfielder shattered the world report in the summertime of 2022 when she moved from Manchester Metropolis to hitch all-conquering Barcelona, who had beforehand turn into the primary Spanish girls’s membership to win the European treble after claiming the league title, Champions League and Copa de la Reina the earlier season.
Walsh was additionally using excessive after beginning each single sport for the Lionesses of their triumphant run to glory on the 2022 European Championships, and duly sealed her €400,000 transfer (plus one other €62,000 in potential add-ons) to Liga F through the remaining few days of the summer season switch window.
Mayra RamÃrez – Levante to Chelsea
$488,610 (€450,000), 2024
Walsh’s report switch lasted 18 months because it was surpassed at the beginning of the 2024 January window when Chelsea went massive to be able to land RamÃrez from Spanish top-tier aspect Levante.
The 24-year-old had already scored six targets in seven video games in Liga F when the Blues set a brand new benchmark within the switch world by parting with an preliminary €450,000 plus an additional €50,000 in potential add-ons.
RamÃrez additionally grew to become the most-expensive girls’s participant in British historical past (exceeding the €350,000 deal that took Jill Roord from Wolfsburg to Manchester Metropolis in 2023.)
Racheal Kundananji – Madrid CFF to Bay FC
$787,600 (€735,000), 2024
Kundananji is likely one of the most prolific strikers in girls’s soccer and scored 33 targets in 43 league video games for Madrid CFF earlier than opting to maneuver to NWSL and signal a four-year contract with San Francisco-based Bay FC
The bottom charge of €735,000 (plus an additional €75,000 in add-ons) smashed the ladies’s switch report by a major margin, whereas the gifted Zambia worldwide additionally grew to become the primary African participant, feminine or male, to interrupt a world switch report.
In March, her worldwide teammate Barbra Banda moved to Orlando Delight from Shanghai Shengli for €675,000 ($740,000), however that solely counted because the second-highest charge in girls’s switch historical past.
Naomi Girma – San Diego Wave to Chelsea
$1.1m (€1.04m), 2025
Seen because the world’s finest defender, Girma is barely 24 and have become the primary $1m switch in girls’s soccer when she opted to go to Chelsea in January.
America worldwide was underneath contract with the San Diego Wave by way of to 2026, however made historical past because the NWSL membership allowed her to depart for world-record charge.
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Smith: An ‘honour and privilege’ to play for Arsenal
Olivia Smith discusses her profession up to now within the Ladies’s Tremendous League after becoming a member of Arsenal.
Olivia Smith – Liverpool to Arsenal
$1.33m (€1.15m), 2025
The 20-year-old Canada worldwide, who made her senior worldwide debut on the age of 15, signed for Liverpool in July 2024 in what was a club-record switch. However whereas Liverpool might solely muster a mid-table end and struggled to make headway in any of the home cup competitions in her debut season, Smith was a standout participant for her group in 2024-25 and ended as their prime aim scorer in each the WSL and throughout all competitions.
Smith’s performances persuaded Arsenal to interrupt the world report to land her on July 17, having already bolstered their Champions League-winning squad with the addition of England worldwide Chloe Kelly from Manchester Metropolis and former Liverpool captain Taylor Hinds, each on free transfers.
Lizbeth Ovalle – Tigres to Orlando Delight
$1.5m (€1.28m), 2025
Ovalle, 25, has been at Tigres since making her skilled debut in 2017 and has gained six Liga MX Femenil titles and three Campeón de Campeonas trophies. Whereas, at nationwide group degree for Mexico, she’s earned over 50 appearances and completed as a member of the perfect XI in final 12 months’s Concacaf W Gold Cup.
She additionally grew to become the primary Mexican participant, feminine or male, to interrupt a world switch report.
