‘It does not really feel actual’: Naomi Girma completes historic $1.1 million transfer to Chelsea
Girls’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 12 months.
It’s the third time Chelsea has paid a world-record payment for a participant, after Denmark ahead Pernille Tougher ($355,000) in 2020 and Colombia ahead Mayra Ramirez ($542,000) final 12 months.
The 24-year-old Girma was beneath contract with the Wave till 2026. She was drawing curiosity from French membership Lyon and Arsenal, Chelsea’s rival within the Girls’s Tremendous League.
Girma was offered on the sector in entrance of Chelsea’s followers forward of Sunday’s recreation in opposition to Arsenal at Stamford Bridge within the WSL.
“I am so comfortable and actually excited to be right here. It does not really feel actual,” Girma mentioned.
“There are a variety of issues about Chelsea that made me wish to come right here — the tradition, the profitable mentality, workers and gamers. It is a prime atmosphere to be taught and develop in. Proper now, that is what I am seeking to do. It was a simple alternative for me.”
Girma made her debut for the nationwide workforce 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.
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. Through the Olympics, U.S. coach Emma Hayes, the previous coach at Chelsea, known as Girma “one of the best 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, means to learn the sport coupled along with her tempo and athleticism will add top of the range to an already very gifted squad.”
Girma was captain of the Stanford workforce that gained the nationwide championship in 2019. She was taken at No. 1 within the 2022 Nationwide Girls’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.
Reporting by The Related Press.
Naomi Girma
United States
Chelsea FC
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