Canada’s Olivia Smith becomes world’s highest paid women’s soccer player

Canada forward Olivia Smith became the most expensive player in women’s soccer history at a reported one million pounds (US$1.34 million) when Arsenal signed her from Liverpool on Thursday.

The new benchmark in women’s soccer would surpass the 900,000 pounds ($1.1 million) Chelsea paid when signing Naomi Girma from the San Diego Wave in January.

Smith’s four-year deal highlights the increase in spending in women’s soccer, with transfer records regularly broken.

Zambia striker Rachael Kundananji joined Bay FC from Madrid CFF for a record $788,000 last year, and that figure was quickly exceeded by Girma’s move to Chelsea.

As recently as 2020, the most expensive women’s player was Denmark’s Pernille Harder, who joined Chelsea from Wolfsburg for $355,000.

England’s Keira Walsh left Manc