Olivia Smith, the most expensive soccer player of all time

This century has seen several advances with the incorporation of women into more activities that were previously only granted to men. For example, in the sports field, titles have been awarded to great athletes in different disciplines. You may be interested in: Chelsea surprised at the Club World Cup: they defeated PSG 3-0 and were crowned champions.

This is the case in women's football, which experienced a historic moment with the signing of forward Olivia Smith for Arsenal, the current Champions League champions. "It's a privilege and an honor to sign for Arsenal ," Smith said.

According to BBC News, this is the first million-pound signing, or approximately US$1,350,000, in the history of women's football. According to the data, the previous world record was the 900,000 pounds (US$1,218,000) paid by Chelsea in January to sign American defender Naomi Girma from the San Diego Wave in California.

What has the footballer's career been like?

Olivia Smith started playing soccer at age three, although it was just one of several sports she practiced, including martial arts. After her great effort with the ball at age 19, she was in the Portuguese National Women's Championship.

She then joined Liverpool from Portuguese club Sporting last summer and scored seven goals in 20 Women's Super League (WSL) matches in her debut season. She signed for Liverpool for a fee of just over £200,000 (approximately US$270,000) in July 2024, with two years remaining on her contract.

It's worth mentioning that the first time a million pounds was paid in British football was with the signing of Trevor Francis by Nottingham Forest 46 years ago.

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Since then, the figure has increased considerably until, in the summer of 2017, Paris Saint-Germain made the two most expensive signings in the history of men's football.

The French club invested US$260 million in Neymar, who was playing for Barcelona, before signing Kylian Mbappé from Monaco, initially on loan, in a transfer worth more than US$220 million.

Leidy Julieth Ruiz Clavijo

Portfolio Journalist