Canada's Olivia Smith, signed by Arsenal, becomes most expensive player in women's football history

Arsenal signed Olivia Smith from Liverpool (X/ArsenalWFC)

Canada forward Olivia Smith became the most expensive player in women's soccer history at a reported one million pounds ($1.34 million) when Arsenal signed her from Liverpool on Thursday. The new benchmark in women’s soccer would surpass the 900,000 pounds ($1.1 million) Chelsea paid when signing Naomi Girma from the San Diego Wave in January.

Smith's four-year deal highlights the increase in spending in women's soccer with transfer records regularly broken. Zambia striker Rachael Kundananji joined Bay FC from Madrid CFF for a record $788,000 last year, and that figure was quickly exceeded by Girma's move to Chelsea.

As recently as 2020, the most expensive women’s player was Denmark’s Pernille Harder, who joined Chelsea from Wolfsburg for $355,000. England’s Keira Walsh left Manchester City for Barcelona in 2022 for a deal worth $513,000, and Chelsea broke the record again in 2024 when signing Mayra Ramirez from Levante for $542,000.

The 20-year-old Smith has rapidly risen since developing in the United States college system. She joined Sporting Clube in Portugal in 2023 and scored 16 goals in 28 appearances in her debut season. She moved to Liverpool last year and scored nine times in 25 games.

Smith is also Canada's youngest international after making her debut at 15 in 2019.

“Olivia is an exciting young player and we believe she can make a big contribution here at Arsenal," head coach Renee Slegers said. “We’ve been impressed by her mentality and character, excelling in two European leagues at such a young age.”

Arsenal is a 15-time English champion and won the Champions League for the second time in its history last season. Despite Chelsea being the dominant force in women's soccer in England, Arsenal is the only English team to win the Champions League.

“It’s my dream to compete for the biggest titles here in England and in Europe and I’m excited to get started and contribute to doing that here with Arsenal," Smith said.