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soccer ball at empty soccer stadium
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Pace | Culture > News

One Small Step for Sports, One Giant Leap For Womankind: Naomi Girma Becomes the First Ever Million Dollar Player in Women’s Soccer

Cassidy Burry Student Contributor, Pace University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Pace chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Olympic star and United States defender Naomi Girma just became the first ever million dollar soccer player. In late January, Girma said goodbye to San Diego Wave and joined Chelsea Women Football Club in England. The 24-year-old California native has spent the past two years on San Diego Wave after being their first overall draft pick in 2022. 

Girma stood in front of Chelsea’s fans at the game against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in the Women’s Super League (WSL), and announced her decision to join the club. The £900,000 (1.1 million dollars) transfer fee surpassed the previous record of $788,000. The Bay FC paid the Zambian forward Racheal Kundananji that record breaking amount when she was signed from Madrid CFF. 

Before signing, Girma was gaining interest from Chelsea’s rivals, Arsenal and French club Lyon. Upon signing her four-and-a-half-year deal with Chelsea, Girma said, “There are a lot of things about Chelsea that made me want to come here – the culture, the winning mentality, staff and players. It’s a top environment to learn and grow in.” 

 The previous coach of Chelsea and current head coach for the United States National Soccer team, Emma Hayes, called Girma, “…the best defender I’ve ever seen…I’ve never seen a player as good as her at the back. She’s got everything, poise, composure, she can defend, she anticipates, she leads. [She’s] unbelievable.” 

Girma’s career started out as a Stanford Cardinal. She had an epic first season with them, playing all but one game. Girma became team captain and played in all 25 games her sophomore year. She led Stanford to win the national championship in 2019. Sadly, her entire junior year was interrupted by COVID-19, and an ACL tear injury caused her to not be able to play. Luckily, she made a swift recovery and started every game her senior year. 

During her rookie season with San Diego Wave, Girma was named 2024 National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Best XI Second Team and 2022 NWSL Rookie of the Year and Defender of the Year. She was also nominated for NWSL’s most valuable player, but lost to Portland Thorns FC striker Sophia Smith. In 2023, she was once again named NWSL Defender of the Year. Grima was additionally nominated for the Best FIFA Women’s Player Award in 2024 and was named in The Best FIFA Women’s XI. 

In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Grima played every minute of the game and helped secure the team gold. Similarly, she was a standout player in the 2023 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia. Girma said that she dedicated the 2023 World Cup to former Stanford goalie, teammate, and best friend Katie Meyer after her shocking death.  Due to another injury, Girma missed the start of Chelsea’s season and played her debut game on March 2 against Brighton & Hove Albion. The game ended 2-2, with Girma playing only the first 56 minutes before being substituted due to injury. Fans of Chelsea and her former Wave fans all can’t wait to see her continue to thrive as she reps the “Chelsea blue,” continuing to add to her already impressive curriculum vitae.

Cassidy Burry

Pace '27

Cassidy Burry is a junior at Pace University. She is double majoring in Communications and Media studies, and Peace and Justice studies with a minor in digital storytelling and journalism. This is her third year as a member of Her Campus Pace. Throughout her childhood, she has collected various magazines, and Vogue in particular has been a great inspiration in her decision to pursue journalism.

Cassidy used to write articles for a nonprofit, SisterLove, based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are the first women’s HIV, sexual, and reproductive justice organization in the southeastern United States. She feels honored to have help advocate and educate people on the importance of reproductive and healthcare rights. These rights are extremely important to Cassidy, and ones she will not stop fighting for. Cassidy loves spending time with kids. Over the summer she works as a summer camp counselor, educating and caring for youth, at Camp Winnarainbow. This camp was founded by peace activists 50 years ago. In high school she worked at a elementary school program. That involved taking kids, ages four through seven, to different parks, beaches, and other locations native to northern California. They would focus on teaching the kids the importance of the environment and how to leave it better than they found it. They regularly cleaned up the beaches and parks they visit. Cassidy has always had a love for her community and giving back. She also spent a large majority of her time in high school volunteering at a kitchen and garden that grew and produced meals for chronically ill people and their families.

In her free time, she works part-time as a barista at a local bakery. Cassidy has a deep love for music ranging from all genres. She was named after the song “Cassidy '' by the Grateful Dead. She has found that being named after that legendary band has brought meaningful connections to her everyday life. For the majority of her childhood, she played competitive soccer. And now that she is no longer playing herself, she looks forward to the Women’s World Cup every four years. She hopes that women in sports will gain more recognition in the future, and will not be seen as second to men’s sport.