Canada's Smith signed by Arsenal for women's record 1M pounds

Canada forward Olivia Smith became the most expensive player in women's soccer history at a reported one million pounds (US$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.

But those figures are still a long way behind the men's game where Neymar remains the record signing following his 2017 move from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for $262 million.

Kylian Mbappe joined PSG for $216 million and is the second most expensive player of all time.

The 20-year-old from Whitby, Ont., has rapidly risen since developing in the United States college system.

Smith was contracted by Sporting Clube in Portugal in 2023 and scored 16 goals in 28 appearances in her debut season.

She moved to Liverpool last year, scored nine goals in 25 games, and was voted Liverpool FC Women’s 2024-25 Player of the Season.

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

She has three goals and three assists in 18 senior appearances for Canada.

“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.

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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With files from The Canadian Press.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer