Arsenal has broken the transfer record in women’s football on Thursday. The English top club is taking over Canadian Olivia Smith from Liverpool. The BBC and The Athletic report that the amount is 1.17 million euros.
Arsenal takes over the record from Chelsea, which took over Naomi Girma from the American San Diego Wave for 1.05 million euros in January 2025. That was the first million-dollar transfer in women’s football.
Twenty-year-old Smith signs a four-year contract with Arsenal, which is led by Dutch head coach Renée Slegers. The attacker is known as a great talent and made a splash last season at Liverpool, where she scored nine times in 25 games.
Smith had the honor in 2019 to make her international debut for Canada at the age of fifteen as the youngest player ever. So far, she has played eighteen international matches, in which she has scored four times. In 2023 she represented her country at the 2023 World Cup.
“It is a privilege to sign for Arsenal,” Smith says on the club website. “It is my dream to compete for the biggest prizes in England and Europe. I look forward to getting started.”
Arsenal won the Champions League last season. The Londoners were too strong for FC Barcelona in the final (1-0). At ‘The Gunners’ Smith will be a teammate of Orange internationals Victoria Pelova and Daphne van Domselaar.