Home Sports USWNT’s Naomi Girma completes Chelsea transfer for record transfer in women’s football

USWNT’s Naomi Girma completes Chelsea transfer for record transfer in women’s football

by Eclipsnews
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USWNT defender Naomi Girma has completed her switch from the San Diego Wave to Chelsea and has become the most expensive transfer in the history of women’s football.

Athletics Reported earlier this week that Chelsea had agreed with the Wave for the transfer of Girma for a record amount of 1.1 million dollars, according to sources that were informed about the negotiations and that spoke as a result of anonymity.

The 24-year-old was under contract with San Diego until 2026, which is why a fee was required for the deal, and this made her the first women’s football star with a value of more than $ 1 million.

The deal surpasses the previous record amount of € 735,000 that Bay FC paid in February 2024 for Zambia striker Racheal Kundanji from Madrid CFF.

Girma attracted considerable interest from elsewhere in Europe, with an eight -time European champion Lyon himself made an $ 1 million offer.

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“I am so happy and excited to be here,” Girma said on the Chelsea website. “It doesn’t really feel.

“There are many things about Chelsea who made sure that I wanted to come here: the culture, the winner’s mentality, the staff and the players. It is a top environment to learn and grow.

“At the moment that is what I want to do. For me it was an easy choice. “


Girma was presented on the Stamford Bridge field prior to their Women’s Super League match against Arsenal (Bradley Collyer/Pa Images via Getty Images)

The Wave was willing to lose the central defender for the 2025 season, after she signed the 17-year-old Trinity Armstrong of the University of North Carolina last week for a three-year contract.

Girma joined the Wave as the first choice in the NWSL-Draft of 2022 after he had played for Stanford at a collegial level. She was named NSWL defender of the year in 2022 and 2023 and was part of the Wave side who won the NWSL Shield in 2023.

Chelsea has now added more depth as a central defender, after she lost the Canadian International Kadeisha Buchanan to an injury to the front cruciate ligament (VKB) in December.

The Sonia Bompastor team leads the Women’s Super League and has penetrated the knockout phase of the Champions League, the only competition they still have to win.


Analysis by senior football writer Jeff Rueter from The Athletic

When the US won Olympic gold in 2024, Girma’s hymns were sung just as loudly as those of the attacking trio Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson.

Even with the progress of modern statistics, it is difficult to quantify the size of the value of a defender in figures. Instead, a combination of data, the eye test and the approval of experts helped to bring one point home: Girma was quickly reached at the highest level of her position.

“She is the best defender I have ever seen,” said the American head coach Emma Hayes, former Chelsea manager, after a victory in the Olympic semi -final to Germany. “Ever. She has everything: balance, calmness, she defends, she anticipates, she leads.”

In that victory in Germany, Girma had a larger number of completed passes than any other player tried. She closed the German attackers as soon as they approached the last third part. She wore the ball over a distance of 687 meters, 24 percent of the combined distance from the USWNT, giving her teammates crucial time to move outside the ball.

For the time being, Girma is a class of its own. According to the estimate of many people, she is the best player in her position in women’s football worldwide. That status ensures that she also participates in the broader conversation about the biggest players in sport. And in that area she is on her way to be among the best in the history of the USWNT.

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How does Girma reimbursement relate to that of others in women’s football?

The Girma fee is the fourth time in less than three years that the transfer record is broken in the women. In 2024 it was broken twice in a period of one month.

It is also the third time that Chelsea has contracted a player for a record amount for the transfer fee in women, after the acquisition of Mayra Ramirez from Levante in 2022 and Pernille Harder van Wolfsburg in 2020.

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The world transfer record among women has been broken three times in eighteen months. Is that good or bad?

Analysis of tactic writer Michael Cox from The Athletic

Normally a few games are needed to realize the full capacities of a central defender, but something about Girma is different. She is an excellent reader of the game, good at covering the space in the back and able to fight physically without leaning on physicality. She seems to be the complete defender.

Maybe all she misses is real air dominance. With a length of 1.68 meters, she is not a striking appearance and won only 51.5 percent of her air fights in the NWSL last season, which is not exactly a reassuring figure for a central defender. But the fact that despite that relative lack of air force she can dominate her own penalty area, she almost contributes to her appearance.

It also says something about the development of the women’s game in general. While the men’s game has steadily averted a diet of long balls and crosses, the women’s game has developed in a different way, more based on attacks on the ground through technology or speed. For example, there are only about 75 percent as many air fights in the Women’s Super League as in the Premier League.

Being the most valuable football player in the world does not mean that you are the downright best football player. Yet the central defenders feel unusually prominent. Even before Girmas Zet were involved in 10 of the 50 most expensive transfers in the women’s game defenders, compared to only six of the 50 most expensive transfers in the men’s game.

For once the next generation of football players would grow up with the desire to play in the defense.

(Top photo: Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images)

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