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| Olivia Smith, an American football genius. AP Yonhap News |
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Arsenal WFC (Women Football Club) is close to recruiting a new striker at the world's highest transfer fee.
The British daily 『Guardian" accepted Arsenal's transfer fee offer for Canadian striker Olivia Smith (20) on the 11th (Korea time). The two clubs agreed to a transfer fee of 1 million pounds (about 1.86 billion won). This is the world's highest transfer fee, exclusively reported.
The Guardian said Smith will be the first player in women's soccer to record a £1 million ransom, and is expected to set a record for the highest transfer fee in women's soccer history, surpassing the $1.1 million (current exchange rate of about 1.51 billion won) Chelsea spent when recruiting U.S. center back Naomi Girma in January.
In men's football, about 46 years ago, in 1979, Trevor Francis moved from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest, breaking the £1 million wall for the first time.
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Smith, a central striker and winger, has been called a football genius since childhood. In an interview with the 'Guardian' in April, Smith said "I've always liked to score. I used to watch videos of Marta and Christine Sinclair as children. I've always wanted to own the ball, score goals. Sometimes I would take the ball away from my teammates and score a goal."
In this interview, he confessed that when he was an elementary school student, he experienced a heartbreaking experience of being bullied. Smith said "Those friends must be regretting now." Then "At first, I learned Taekwondo for self-defense. Taekwondo was very helpful in playing soccer. That's in every way, power, discipline, and attitude. My favorite thing was sparring"The training was really harsh. I once cried because of hard training, but in the end, I felt rewarded.'
Smith broke the record for the youngest appearance for the Canadian national team in 2019 at the age of 15. He scored his third goal in a friendly match against South Korea in Spain in December last year, leading the team to a 5-1 victory.
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In July 2024, he joined Liverpool for a transfer fee of 200,000 pounds (about 372 million pounds) from Sporting (Portugal). Last season, he successfully settled on the English soccer stage with seven goals in 20 appearances in the English Women's Super League (WSL) while wearing a Liverpool uniform. Smith's score is one-third that of Liverpool, which finished seventh in the league.
Liverpool initially rejected offers from multiple clubs for Smith, according to the Guardian, but accepted the offer when he was offered a fee of five times the amount of his investment in a year.
'Guardian'Arnall has been strengthening his team's strength since winning the Women's Champions League. He signed Chloe Kelly from Manchester City on a free agent and left-back Taylor Hinds, whose contract with Liverpool was out' reported the current atmosphere.
Arsenal made a surprise splash in the 2024-2025 European Women's Champions League and reached the final, beating Barcelona 1-0 to win its second title in 18 years since 2007.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
