Chelsea have agreed a world-record deal to sign United States defender Naomi Girma, according to reports.
The 24-year-old is set to move to the Women's Super League champions from San Diego Wave for a reported €1,055,000, eclipsing the current record – paid by Bay FC in February 2024 for Racheal Kundanaji – by €255,000.
At 1.1million US dollars it will make Girma the first million-dollar transfer in the women’s game after the Blues fended off competition from French side Lyon.
She will become Sonia Bompastor’s first signing of the January transfer window and it comes after defender Kadeisha Buchanan was ruled out, likely for the rest of the season, with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
The fee will almost treble the previous British record set when Chelsea signed striker Mayra Ramirez from Levante for €455,000 a year ago.
First coming to international attention during the 2023 World Cup, at which the US exited in the last 16, Girma played every minute of her country’s victorious Olympic campaign in Paris having been named US Soccer’s female player of the year.
Chelsea currently lead the WSL by seven points from Arsenal who they face at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Manchester City women signed Brazil forward Kerolin Nicoli, the 2023 National Women's Soccer League's (NWSL) most valuable player, to a three-and-a-half year deal.
The 25-year-old Nicoli, a silver medallist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, joins from North Carolina Courage where she became the first South American to be named league MVP after leading her side to the Challenge Cup in 2023.
"I think there were a lot of reasons why I chose City and one of those was to play in the Champions League," Nicoli said in a statement.
"I think the players (in the WSL) are really technical and the team is compact. I want to be better, to learn different things and to come here to be challenged, also play against the defenders who will play in the next World Cup in Brazil in 2027."
Nicoli, who is also known by just her first name Kerolin, has 45 national team caps and joins City following a successful spell at North Carolina, where she scored 13 goals in 24 games.
"Kerolin is creative, quick, and will add even more firepower to our forward line," said the club's women's director of football Therese Sjogran.
