While fans of men’s football are used to transfer fees reaching the hundreds of millions of euros, it’s fair to say the fees paid for women footballers pale in comparison.
That will hopefully change going forward, but, for now, the most expensive player of all time remains Keira Walsh, whose transfer from Manchester City to Barcelona cost the Spanish club €470k.
Over at Arsenal Women, their most expensive transfer was Lina Hurtig’s purchase in 2022 for €136k, but that has now been smashed right out of the park if Aftonbladet are to be believed.
The Swedish newspaper provide a bit of information regarding the transfer of Kyra Cooney-Cross from Hammarby to Arsenal Women, and reveal the fee actually makes her ‘one of the world’s most expensive’ players of all time.
This means it would be the third biggest transfer in Women’s association football after the aforementioned Keira Walsh and Jill Roord, whom Manchester City paid upwards of €350k for.
Aftonbladet explain the Australian midfielder is leaving for Arsenal Women ‘for a record sum’, and while previous reports suggested the fee could be of SEK 2m, ‘several independent sources’ have told the Swedish paper the transfer sum is ‘just over SEK 3.8m’.
This fee is split in two different payments, with Arsenal Women forking out €250k up front, with Hammarby also entitled to an additional €100k.
This would suggest that it could reach €350k, which is actually just over SEK 4.1m, but it all depends on whether that extra €100k is fully achievable.
Either way, Arsenal Women have paid a lot of money for Cooney-Cross, and will be hoping it was all worth it down the line.
