Women's transfer record history: List of the most expensive players in women's football

Barbra Banda had been lighting up the international stage for several years before her move to the Orlando Pride in 2024, but her club exploits were being conducted somewhat out of the spotlight, in the Chinese Women's Super League with Shanghai Shengli. That all ended when the Pride paid a huge $740,000 (£582,000) fee to bring her to the U.S. and thrust her talent back into the limelight on a regular basis. Banda's first season in Orlando was certainly worth the money, as her 17 goals in 26 outings helped deliver the club's first NWSL Championship.

Brazil star Ludmila was part of what could become the second-most lucrative intra-league trade in NWSL history at the start of 2026, when she moved from the Chicago Stars to the San Diego Wave for an initial fee of $800,000 (£582,000).

Aged 31, the forward is a well-known figure in the women's game, having enjoyed a particularly brilliant stint at Atletico Madrid from 2017 to 2024, one in which she scored 59 goals in 137 league games. Those performances persuaded Chicago to sign her to a three-year deal midway through the 2024 campaign.

However, she would only stick around for a season and a half, before San Diego made their move with a deal that could rise to a value of $1,000,000 (£727,000).

Leading the Women's Super League title race by a significant margin, Manchester City went into the 2026 January transfer window looking to strengthen a side that was already in a brilliant position, and that they did by adding a world-class midfielder to the squad in Sam Coffey.

Having established herself as one of the best No.6s in the game with both the Portland Thorns and the USWNT, it was no surprise that Coffey cost City a club-record fee, that of £650,000 ($875,000). It will be worth it immediately if she can help the team get over the line and win a first WSL title in 10 years.

It was just a few weeks prior to Banda's move to Orlando when Racheal Kundananji, her Zambia team-mate, became the most expensive women's footballer in the world when she joined another NWSL club, Bay FC. The expansion side made a statement when they paid $862,000 (£685,000) to bring her to California from Madrid CFF, with whom she scored 33 goals in 43 league games.

Kundananji hasn't quite hit those heights in the U.S. yet, but Bay FC in general are still to make a real mark on the NWSL since coming into the league back in 2024.

Walsh returned to England in January 2025, when Chelsea completed a sensational deadline day swoop for the midfielder. While the initial fee was reported at around £460,000 ($572,000), add-ons and bonuses meant to was likely to rise. By the end of the 2024-25 season, Spanish media reported that it had done exactly that, with the Blues ultimately paying €850,000 (£714,000/$884,000) for one of the best holding midfielders on the planet.

Claudia Martinez was one of the breakout stars of 2025, thanks to an incredible Copa America in which she scored six goals in just five games for a Paraguay side that didn't even make the semi-finals, earning her a share of the Golden Boot at just 17 years old. 

Washington Spirit were certainly impressed by what they saw from the young forward, too, signing her a few months later in January 2026. ESPN reported that the NWSL club paid a whopping $950,000 to sign her from Club Olimpia, just a few days after Martinez celebrated her 18th birthday.

After just one season in the NWSL, Tarciane became the second most expensive player of all-time when she was signed by Lyon in February 2025. L'Equipe reported that the fee for the 21-year-old was around $960,000 (£762,000), a record for the French women's top-flight and a number that would have made her the world record holder had it been a deal that went through just a few weeks earlier.

Two more players joined the $1m club on the same day in a wild few minutes in the NWSL on February 11, starting with Croix Bethune. The 24-year-old, who was named both NWSL Rookie and Midfielder of the Year in 2024, requested a trade from the Washington Spirit, who made her the No.3 overall draft pick two years prior, and landed with the Kansas City Current for $1m (£732,000).

Bethune received second team honours in the voting for the NWSL Best XI in 2025, as she helped the Spirit reach the NWSL Championship game, and was part of the United States women's national team that won Olympic gold at Paris 2024.

Just a few minutes before Bethune's move to the Current was announced, the club revealed that Claire Hutton, a finalist for the 2025 NWSL Rookie of the Year award, had left to join Bay FC for a deal worth $1.1m (£805,000). The 20-year-old had been a key player for Kansas City ever since breaking into the first team as a teenager, helping the team win the NWSL Shield in 2025, and will now take those talents to California ahead of Emma Coates' first season in charge of Bay FC.

But that world-record instead went to Naomi Girma, who was signed by Chelsea in January 2025 for £883,000, a fee that converts to $1,100,000 and thus makes her the first million dollar player in the women's game. Despite being just 24 years old, Girma is already widely considered one of the best centre-backs in the entire world, if not the best. It's a reputation she carved out in her first three seasons in the NWSL with the San Diego Wave and certainly cemented with her performances for the U.S. at the 2024 Olympic Games, at which she and her team won gold.

The most lucrative transfer ever between two NWSL clubs came midway through 2025, when Gotham paid $1,250,000 (£909,000) for Jaedyn Shaw. After coming into the league midway through the 2022 campaign, aged just 17, Shaw immediately grabbed the attention, becoming the youngest player to score on their competition debut when she netted for the San Diego Wave against Chicago. Her star would continue to shine brightly, too, particularly in the 2023 season as the Wave won the NWSL Shield.

She wouldn't stay on the west coast, though. In January 2025, Shaw moved to the North Carolina Courage in one of the NWSL's most valuable trades to date, but that was blown out of the water later that same year when Gotham paid a league-record fee to bring her in. A few months after, Shaw was celebrating the first NWSL Championship triumph of her career, starring in the final game of the season in victory over the Washington Spirit.

Girma held the word-record for a women's football transfer fee six months, until Arsenal made Olivia Smith the first million pound player in July 2025. The Gunners fell victim to the 20-year-old's magic in the FA Cup quarter-finals earlier in the year, as she inspired Liverpool to an unlikely victory, so they were under no illusions when it came to her talent, so much so that they were willing to pay a fee never seen before in the women's game to secure her services.

There was a lot of different reporting about the fee Chelsea paid for Alyssa Thompson on WSL deadline day in the summer of 2025. Initially, the Athletic said it fell just short of the £1 million mark, before both the Telegraph and the Guardian suggested otherwise. The latter pair understood the deal to be a club-record for Chelsea, surpassing the fee paid for Girma, and said it could rise to become a world-record, though it appeared to be short of what the Orlando Pride paid for Lizbeth Ovalle to start.

Smith's move to Arsenal held the world-record for a women's transfer for little over a month, before the Orlando Pride paid an even greater fee to secure the services of Mexico sensation Ovalle in August 2025. The 25-year-old had previously been linked with every top club in Europe - with all of Barcelona, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Wolfsburg interested after her outstanding exploits with Tigres. However, the next chapter of her career will instead take place in the U.S, after she signed for the reigning NWSL champions for a world-record fee of $1.5m (£1.1m).

A new women's transfer record was set on WSL deadline day in the summer of 2025 as London City Lionesses paid €1.65m (£1.43m/$1.93m) to bring Paris Saint-Germain captain Grace Geyoro to the club ahead of their top-flight debut. London City are backed by the billions of Michele Kang, who also owns PSG's bitter rivals Lyon, and the club threw that money around plenty in preparation for their WSL bow.