Arsenal's monster transfer fee for Canadian Olivia Smith buzzes at home

National Post

18-07-2025

A Canadian player setting a new benchmark in the women's soccer transfer market floats a lot of boats, says Northern Super League co-founder and former Canadian international Diana Matheson.
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The one million pounds (C$1.85 million) Arsenal paid Liverpool for 20-year-old forward Olivia Smith of Whitby, Ont., in the Women's Super League is the biggest price tag in women's soccer history for a transfer.
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Matheson says an accelerating transfer fee market bodes well for the NSL, which kicked off this year with six teams and a mission to provide the first domestic women's pro league for Canadian and international players.
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'The growth of the market really helps us sell to investors in Canada and abroad,' she said. 'The transfer market is obviously a piece of that puzzle.
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'This is where the market is at that a Canadian player is going for this and how exciting is it like that we're not far around the corner now that we have a professional league, that if top Canadians choose to leave the Canadian league in the future, clubs could be selling them for a whole lot of money because we create such world-class players.'
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Smith's transfer to the Gunners announced Thursday surpassed the previous high of 900,000 pounds (C$1.6 million) Chelsea paid the NWSL's San Diego Wave for American centre back Naomi Girma in January.
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'To be part of a movement that's changing how the game is valued is an honour,' Smith said in a statement released by her public relations agency.
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'This is a huge step forward for women's soccer and for Canadian soccer. I hope this shows young Canadian girls that anything is possible.'
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Serita Thurton of the NSL's Wild FC said rumours about Smith's transfer to Arsenal before it was announced was a topic of discussion in the Calgary club's dressing room.
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'Seeing a Canadian player break a record like this, it kind of just shows that Canada has a lot to offer when it comes to quality in soccer players,' said the forward from Ajax, Ont.
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'It definitely makes our league look a lot better. Even though she isn't playing it, just the fact that it is a Canadian league, it does make a statement saying that Canada has quality players and that we're a football country in our own right. So yeah, it definitely has a good look in that sense.'
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Matheson, who retired in 2021, says a transfer fee market for women was nonexistent for most of her career.