Chelsea made history during the January transfer window by becoming the first team to spend more than $1million (£800,000) on a female footballer. Then they went and signed Keira Walsh, a player bought by Barcelona in 2022 in a deal worth more than £400,000 — a then world-record transfer fee in the women’s game.
The scale of Chelsea’s outlay has raised eyebrows about the impact on the women’s football ecosystem in England, particularly given they already hold a seven-point lead at the top of the Women’s Super League (WSL).
Winners of six WSL titles in seven years and going for their sixth in a row, Chelsea have long been big spenders, with their $1.1million fee for Naomi Girma last month being the third time they have broken the transfer record for a women’s player.
At the same time, that amount of money is minuscule to a club such as Chelsea, who have spent more than £1.2billion on men’s players since they were acquired by a consortium led by Clearlake Capital in summer 2022. Given that all 12 WSL sides are owned by a Premier League club, why do more of its teams not spend big to bring in the world’s best players?
Transfer fees are becoming increasingly common in the women’s game.
FIFA’s 2024 Global Transfer Report revealed that $12.5million was spent on…
