MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Chelsea have made Naomi Girma the first female million-dollar player, signing the United States defender to a long-term deal for a world-record transfer fee reported by British media to be in the region of 900,000 pounds ($1.12 million).
The WSL club announced the signing on Sunday, with Girma presented to the 34,302 crowd at Stamford Bridge before their league game against Arsenal, which Chelsea won 1-0.
The fee tops the 685,000 euros ($718,770.50) that the NWSL's Bay FC paid for Zambia's Racheal Kundananji in February 2024.
Girma joins from the San Diego Wave, where she was under contract until 2026 which is why the deal required a transfer fee.
"There are a lot of things about Chelsea that made me want to come here -- the culture, the winning mentality, staff and players. It's a top environment to learn and grow in," Girma said in a club statement.
The 24-year-old is considered to be among the world's best defenders, playing every minute of the 2024 Paris Olympic tournament where the Americans won gold with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in the final.
Girma, manager Sonia Bompastor's first January signing at the club, will help to shore up a Chelsea back line that lost centre-back Kadeisha Buchanan to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in November.
Holders Chelsea have a nine-point lead over Manchester City atop the WSL table, and their next fixture is away to Aston Villa on Feb. 2.
The Wave selected Girma with the first pick of the 2022 NWSL draft and she went on to win both the league's top defender and rookie of the year awards that season.
She led the Wave to the NWSL Shield in the 2023 season and was named the league's top defender for the second successive year.
($1 = 0.8013 pounds)
($1 = 0.9530 euros)
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, additional reporting by Trevor Stynes; editing by Clare Fallon)
