Naomi Girma is ladies’s soccer’s first million-dollar participant after shifting to Chelsea from San Diego
Ladies’s soccer has its first million-dollar participant after United States defender Naomi Girma moved from San Diego Wave to Chelsea on Sunday.
Chelsea introduced the signing of Girma with out disclosing the payment however The Athletic and the BBC have been amongst these reporting the English champions have spent 900,000 kilos ($1.1 million) on the switch.
That surpasses the world-record payment of $788,000 that Bay FC paid to signal Zambia striker Rachael Kundananji from Madrid CFF final yr.
It’s the third time Chelsea has paid a world-record payment for a participant, after Denmark ahead Pernille More durable ($355,000) in 2020 and Colombia ahead Mayra Ramirez ($542,000) final yr.
The 24-year-old Girma was below contract with the Wave till 2026. She was drawing curiosity from French membership Lyon and Arsenal, Chelsea’s rival within the Ladies’s Tremendous League.
Harriet Lander – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC by way of Getty Photos
Girma was introduced on the sector in entrance of Chelsea’s followers forward of Sunday’s recreation towards Arsenal at Stamford Bridge within the WSL.
“I am so joyful and actually excited to be right here. It would not really feel actual,” Girma mentioned.
“There are a variety of issues about Chelsea that made me need to come right here — the tradition, the profitable mentality, workers and gamers. It is a high surroundings to be taught and develop in. Proper now, that is what I am trying to do. It was a straightforward selection for me.”
Girma made her debut for the nationwide staff in 2022. She has appeared in 44 video games with america and performed on the squad that gained the gold medal on the Paris Olympics.
Daniela Porcelli/ISI Pictures / Getty Photos
Girma was named U.S. Soccer Feminine Participant of the Yr for 2023. She additionally gained the federation’s Younger Participant of the Yr award in 2020. In the course of the Olympics, U.S. coach Emma Hayes, the previous coach at Chelsea, referred to as Girma “the most effective defender I’ve ever seen.”
“Naomi is a world-class defender who’s now coming into the prime years of her profession,” mentioned Paul Inexperienced, Chelsea’s head of girls’s soccer.
“Her composure on the ball, capacity to learn the sport coupled along with her tempo and athleticism will add top of the range to an already very proficient squad.”
Girma was captain of the Stanford staff that gained the nationwide championship in 2019. She was taken at No. 1 within the 2022 Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League draft by the Wave. She was named the league’s Rookie of the Yr and Defender of the Yr in her first season.
