On January 26th, soccer player Naomi Girma was transferred to Chelsea from San Diego Wave for a transfer fee of 1.1 million dollars, the highest transfer fee ever.
The previous record fee was around 700,000 dollars surpassing Racheal Kundanabji from Madrid in February 2024, so almost exactly a year apart. Girma said “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. Right now, that’s what I’m looking to do. It was an easy choice for me.” So you can tell she is excited about it. She helped USWNT get a gold medal in the Paris Olympics last year. She has 44 caps and has scored twice for her country after debuting in 2022. She was also named U.S. Soccer Woman of the Year in 2023. So she is very deserving of the 1.1 million dollar fee record.
This soccer star was born in San Jose, California on June 14th, 2000, to parents Girma Aweke and Seble Demissie both who are immigrants who met in the area she was born in. She has one older brother Nathaniel. When she was younger she played for Maleda Soccer Club, a local club her father created in 2005. She attended Hacienda Elementary School and didn’t even start playing soccer until middle school.
She joined a local youth soccer team Central Valley Crossfire in 2010, she played there until 2017 then was encouraged to attend the Olympic Development Program which is a camp. She also played for California Thorns Academy in high school. She then got an offer to play at Stanford University in her sophomore year. After committing to Stanford during her freshman season, she made 23 appearances, and 22 of those where she started.
Then in her sophomore year, she became team captain starting all 25 games and also carrying her team to multiple Pac-12 Championships. Unfortunately her junior year she missed because of covid and tore her ACL. After her recovery, she played the entire senior year starting in all games. On her birthday in 2023, she was signed to the San Diego Waves until what was supposed to be 2026.
She is one of the best center-backs in the world and very deserving of the record holder of 1.1 million dollars.
