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The San Diego Wave have agreed in principle to send star defender Naomi Girma to Chelsea FC Women for a record transfer fee of $1.1 million, a source confirmed to the Union-Tribune. Details of the transfer, first reported by The Athletic, were still being finalized as of Tuesday night.
In England, Girma can command a salary that is exponentially larger than what she was making in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The 2025 NWSL salary cap is set at $3.3 million per team. Top players make between $200,000 and $500,000 per year.
The Wave’s split with Girma, 24, comes a year after, a source said, the star defender and her representatives asked the club if it would pursue a transfer to an overseas team.
Girma is the United States’ top defender and one of the young stars on the U.S. Women’s National Team. San Diego took Girma No. 1 overall in the 2022 NWSL Draft. She was named the NWSL Defender of the Year after each of her first two seasons.
Girma is the latest star player to leave the Wave, who are undergoing an overhaul under a new ownership group, general manager and coach.
Star striker Alex Morgan retired late last summer after announcing she was pregnant with her second child. The Wave traded veterans Abby Dahlkemper, Taylor Flint and Christen Westphal and released veterans Emily van Egmond and Sofia Jakobsson.
And earlier this month, San Diego dealt Jaedyn Shaw to the North Carolina Courage for $450,000 in allocation money and intra-league transfer funds as well as international roster slots for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
The Wave’s season will open in March, with more details on their schedule expected in the coming days.
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