Naomi Girma is now the most expensive female footballer in the world.
The defender’s £900,000 move from San Diego Wave to Chelsea shattered the previous transfer record.
But who is the 24-year-old who was still playing college football just three years ago?
Girma is the first player of Ethopian descent to represent the US women’s national team.
She was born and raised in San Jose, California, but her parents both emigrated to the US from East Africa in their twenties.
Her father Girma Aweke was a refugee who fled the war there, while her mother Seble Demissie left Ethiopia to study in the US.
The Olympic gold medalist inherited her love of football from her father, who formed a grassroots club – Maleda Soccer – in San Jose, which is where his daughter first began playing.
She went on to play for Central Valley Crossfire, where her coach Bob Joyce encouraged her into the Olympic Development Program. She then earned a call-up to the United States Under-14s.
From there she played for Pioneer High School and then Stanford University, but Girma always credits where she started out.
Girma’s rise to becoming one of the best defenders in the world has been meteoric.
