U.S. girls’s nationwide group stalwart Naomi Girma formally grew to become girls’s soccer’s first million-dollar participant on Sunday by finishing her record-breaking switch from San Diego to Chelsea.
The English membership unveiled Girma at Stamford Bridge moments earlier than its highly-anticipated Girls’s Tremendous League match in opposition to Arsenal.
Concurrently, . Girma will be a part of Chelsea, the reigning WSL champions and present league-leader, instantly.
And Chelsea will pay the San Diego Wave, Girma’s earlier membership, a $1.1 million switch charge. That smashes the earlier file set final offseason, when NWSL growth membership Bay FC acquired Zambian ahead Racheal Kundananji from Madrid CFF for $860,000.
Girma, 24, cemented her standing as the most effective middle backs within the sport on the Paris Olympics final summer time. She that did not concede a single purpose in 330 knockout-round minutes. “Look, she’s one of the best defender I’ve ever seen,” USWNT head coach Emma Hayes mentioned after a 1-0 semifinal win over Germany. “Ever.”
After the 2024 NWSL season ended, Chelsea, Arsenal and Lyon, three European powerhouses, all reportedly confirmed curiosity in buying the Northern California native, per . And in the long run, Chelsea gained out.
“There are lots of issues about Chelsea that made me wish to come right here — the tradition, the profitable mentality, workers and gamers,” Girma mentioned in a information launch. “It’s a high atmosphere to study and develop in.”
Girma joins USWNT teammates Mia Fishel and Catarina Macario at Chelsea, which is chasing its sixth straight league title this season beneath supervisor Sonia Bompastor, who changed Hayes when she left to take cost of the USWNT.
Girma and Macario have been additionally teammates at Stanford, the place they gained a nationwide title collectively. Macario then went abroad. Girma selected to enter the NWSL. The Wave, in its inaugural season, chosen Girma because the No. 1 general choose of the 2022 draft. In three seasons, she helped lead the group to the 2023 NWSL Protect and the 2024 NWSL Problem Cup.
Girma is a well-decorated, sensible again line anchor who cannot solely anticipate opponents’ strikes however can also be key to creating offensive possibilities within the run of play.
Girma departs San Diego whereas the group is in the midst of a reasonably important rebuild. The Wave as head coach earlier this month, turning the web page . However the group shall be lacking a few of its largest faces subsequent season, with and younger ahead Jaedyn Shaw .
Maybe in anticipation of Girma leaving, the Wave 17-year-old defender Trinity Armstrong — one other younger, gifted defender — to a three-year contract on Jan. 16. Armstrong gained an NCAA nationwide championship in a standout freshman season on the College of North Carolina, and is one in every of 5 nominees for U.S. Soccer’s 2024 Younger Participant of the 12 months award. She won’t be Girma, however Armstrong shall be a robust addition to the San Diego again line because the group rebuilds.
