The winter transfer window has been unexpectedly busy in the women’s game, especially as a flurry of U.S. women’s national team players swap the NWSL for teams in Europe. Naomi Girma’s $1.1 million transfer from the San Diego Wave to Chelsea is the headlining act of the window, with the Blues spending a record fee in the women’s game for the center back’s services. Girma is not the only USWNT player swapping the NWSL for Europe, though – Jenna Nighswonger joined Arsenal shortly before the WSL transfer window closed on Thursday, while The Guardian reports that Crystal Dunn is on her way to Paris Saint-Germain. Arsenal reportedly paid NJ/NY Gotham FC $100,000 to sign Nighswonger, per The Athletic, while Dunn will undergo a medical in Paris after her deal with Gotham was terminated on Tuesday. Gotham reportedly looked into a trade within the league for Dunn, per The Athletic, but the asking price meant a deal never came together.
Grouped with Kerolin’s move from the North Carolina Courage to Manchester City on a free transfer, it’s hard not to notice the influx of ex-NWSL talent now playing for European clubs. That said, there’s an argument to be made that it is not time for the NWSL to panic over these moves, in large part because the league is still the home of top-tier domestic and international talent. The transfers, though, are undoubtedly a sign that women’s soccer is growing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean – and in the right direction.
USWNT players’ history in Europe
Girma, Nighswonger and Dunn might be the new high-profile names leaving the NWSL for Europe, but they are far from the first group of players to do so. USWNT captain Lindsey Horan initially joined Lyon in 2022 on loan from the Portland Thorns before a permanent transfer, returning to France after starting her professional career at PSG, while defender Emily Fox left the Courage on a free last year to join Arsenal.
Going beyond the current player pool, though, a lot of USWNT players have made pit stops in Europe over the course of their professional club careers. Some had brief spells in Europe because of a lack of opportunities in the U.S. – Megan Rapinoe, for example, played for Lyon in 2013 shortly before the NWSL’s inaugural season began and Sam Mewis and Rose Lavelle joined Manchester City in 2020 while the U.S. league’s schedule was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Others, like Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, crossed the Atlantic in 2017 – a few months after the Olympics and at the start of a new, four-year cycle. Though the moves were partly an effort to stay fit during what used to be a lengthy NWSL offseason, both Morgan and Lloyd finished out the season with their European clubs before returning to the States.
The decision from Girma, Nighswonger and Dunn to move to Europe in a year without a major international tournament is in line with Morgan and Lloyd’s decisions eight years ago. The current crop, though, are the first USWNT players to make the move in a new world order for women’s soccer — and for American players specifically.
Increased investment and new salary structures
Whether considering NWSL players going to Europe or looking at transfers going the other way, one thing is clear – clubs on both sides of the Atlantic have more money to play with these days, and several are not afraid of showing it.
The top 16 transfer fees in the women’s game were all paid in the last three years, and the rise in the number has been rapid – the NWSL’s Angel City paid $308,000 plus add-ons to sign Scarlett Camberos in 2023, while the Wave collected over $1 million for Girma just this month. Increasing salaries have also played a part in these transfers, with the NWSL salary cap up to $3.3 million in 2025 and a handful of players – including the USWNT’s Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson – have reportedly signed contracts that will pay them around $2 million in total, according to CBS Sports’ Sandra Herrera.
The uptick in transfer fees and salaries comes with a significant update to the payment structure for USWNT players specifically. From the NWSL’s inception in 2012 until the end of 2021, U.S. Soccer paid USWNT players’ league salaries in an effort to keep the young league afloat. That system was abandoned through a memorandum of understanding between U.S. Soccer and the USWNT’s Players Association in Dec. 2021, a decision that came in the midst of negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement that ended with a historic equal pay agreement in Feb. 2022.
NWSL clubs, much like their counterparts in Europe and in the men’s game, are now on the hook for all salaries. It has allowed the women’s soccer landscape to reflect the men’s game more and more, especially as it pertains to offering competitive salaries and major transfer fees. It also means that teams that receive major transfer fees – like the Wave did for Girma – can reinvest in a big way, which could keep the gears moving in the transfer market much like it does in men’s soccer.
Which clubs are spending big?
Even as clubs become comfortable with spending, some clubs are more ambitious than others. A handful of NWSL clubs have made big money moves in recent years, most notably with Bay FC and the Orlando Pride signing Zambian forwards Rachael Kundanji and Barbra Banda, respectively, last year. Those high-profile signings from international clubs are relatively new to the NWSL, though – the league only expanded its roster size to include seven international spots last year, and also introduced a new transfer fee mechanism in 2024. The NWSL is still somewhat fueled by intraleague transfers and the fees tend to be lower, but records are also being set in that category – Gotham recently collected $400,000 in allocation money in a trade with the Houston Dash for Yazmeen Ryan.
Internationally, there is a wide variety of clubs that are splashing cash for new players. Chelsea and Lyon have led the way for a number of years, continuing to spend even under new owners, while Arsenal, City and Barcelona have tried to keep pace in recent years. High-profile transfer fees are still few and far between for most of the world’s other clubs, the combination of inequitable growth in the women’s game globally and clubs that are still reluctant to spend. Even as the WSL receives a batch of impressive new talent, concerns still exist that some clubs are not willing to meet the moment.
“My worry is that it is going to be two or three teams that are buying the best players, so what happens to the rest of the league?,” former England captain Steph Houghton said, per BBC Radio 5 Live. “This is a lesson for all the other clubs that they need to start investing, they need to put their money to make this as competitive as possible. We want to make the WSL the best and the only way you can do that is by having games every week that are competitive and not so predictable. We want owners and footballers to go, ‘We’re going to take this seriously.’ This is not about putting in as little as possible. You have to go and invest in players and the professionalism of the game and the standard and the likes of Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal have done that for a long time. It is now about other clubs really biting the bullet and saying this is where we want to be and this is what we need to do for the game in general.”
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