U.S. women’s national team defender Naomi Girma is close to signing a deal that would reset the bar in women’s soccer.
Chelsea has agreed to pay a record $1.1 million transfer fee for the San Diego Wave defender, according to The Athletic, which would be the first seven-figure transfer fee in women’s soccer. The negotiations aren’t yet finalized, the outlet reported.
Girma went to San Diego for preseason training camp, but she has wanted out of the organization. She has also reportedly fielded a $1 million transfer fee offer from Lyon, and Arsenal was also interested. Girma is signed with the Wave until 2026.
Representatives for Girma, Chelsea, and the Wave did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Girma played every minute of the USWNT’s gold-medal-winning campaign in the Paris Olympics this summer, the only field player to do so. She was the NWSL’s Rookie of the Year in 2022 and Defender of the Year in 2022 and 2023. The 24-year-old played college soccer at Stanford where she won the 2019 national championship, and was selected by the Wave as the first pick in the 2022 NWSL draft, the same year she began playing for the USWNT.
USWNT coach Emma Hayes—the former manager of Chelsea where she led the team to seven Women’s Super League titles and five FA Cups—has called Girma “the best defender [she’s] ever seen.”
The current highest transfer fee in women’s soccer was paid by Bay FC to Madrid CFF for Racheal Kundananji in February 2024 for about $789,000 with $75,000 in “performance-based add-ons.”
