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Just months after Naomi Girma became the first million dollar player in the women’s game the sport has delivered another milestone, with Olivia Smith usurping the Chelsea defender at the top of the most expensive transfers list by becoming the first million pound player in history.
For some, Smith will not be a particularly familiar name. Still only 20 years old, she has just finished her first season in England‘s Women’s Super League with a Liverpool side that finished in the bottom half of the table. It was only her second campaign in the senior professional game, too, after she decided to end her time at college in the متحد States prematurely in search of a path that suited her better.
Yet, Arsenal have seen plenty. The Gunners, the reigning European champions, have completed a £1 million ($1.35m) deal for the Canada international as she swaps Merseyside for north London. Why do Arsenal value her so highly? What will she bring to the table? Is she worth such an incredible fee?
Just months after Naomi Girma became the first million dollar player in the women’s game, the sport has delivered another milestone, with Olivia Smith usurping the Chelsea defender at the top of the most expensive transfers list by becoming the first million pound player in history.
For some, Smith will not be a particularly familiar name. Still only 20 years old, she has just finished her first season in England’s Women’s Super League with a Liverpool side that finished in the bottom half of the table. It was only her second campaign in the senior professional game, too, after she decided to end her time at college in the United States prematurely in search of a path that suited her better.
Yet, Arsenal have seen plenty. The Gunners, the reigning European champions, have completed a £1 million ($1.35m) deal for the Canada international as she swaps Merseyside for north London. Why do Arsenal value her so highly? What will she bring to the table? Is she worth such an incredible fee?
Smith started playing football at the age of three and, after turning out for some local teams as a young girl, she would soon join the Canadian national team programme in the Ontario region. There, she would constantly excel at levels well beyond her age, so much so that, at 15, she became the youngest player in the history of the Canada women’s national team.
“She can do so much already,” then-head coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller said after granting Smith her senior debut in a clash with Brazil. “She can already perform at a level that’s beyond what you could think a kid her age could actually do. So it’s about taking very, very good care of her, but also pushing her.”
Smith would soon take the traditional North American route of college, committing to Florida State University. However, a change of coach would prompt her to transfer to Penn State instead and, then, after just one season, she decided to opt for a different path altogether. She went pro.
Believing that the style of play in the U.S. didn’t suit her, the forward decided to cross the pond and sign for Sporting CP. There, she would quickly make a serious impact, so much so that Liverpool signed her for a club-record fee a year later. It was form that caught the eye back home, too, with Smith’s four-year wait for a recall to the senior national team also ending in a season that saw her named Player of the Year in the Portuguese top-flight.
Coming into a high-profile competition like the WSL allowed Smith’s talent to grab more headlines and earn much more attention. It helped that she regularly turned up in the big fixtures, too, most notably Liverpool’s win over مانشستر يونايتد at Anfield and the FA Cup shock that the Reds produced against Arsenal. At the end of her first season in England, the 20-year-old had seven goals, plus another couple in cup competitions, from 20 games in a team that finished in the bottom half of the table.
“She needed to go somewhere where she knew she would be important, she would play and I think she’s been smart about that, at Sporting and then at Liverpool. I think it’s been good for her,” Mariana Cabral, Smith’s coach in Portugal, told بالجم earlier this year, before adding, with a laugh: “I would already say that she is ready for bigger steps, but one thing at a time!”
That bigger step is here in the form of Arsenal, with the £1m transfer having been made official, and it feels like the right-sized move for Smith, again. The Gunners are a massive power in the women’s game, winning the Champions League less than two months ago, but there will also be opportunities for the forward to get minutes right away in a squad that isn’t too big.
After settling into the WSL last term, the switch would see Smith exposed to a higher level of expectation, higher stakes matches in competitions like the Champions League and she’ll have a serious chance of winning some of the top honours. That would help her development massively, all while she continues to establish herself more firmly in the picture with Canada, two years out from the next World Cup.
In Smith, Arsenal will pick up an incredibly exciting forward who can play as a striker or a No.10, but is certainly at her best out wide. There, she has the freedom to run at defenders and make things happen, showcasing her wonderful skill, dribbling abilities and crossing, as well as her eye for goal. “She’s also an intelligent girl, so you talk to her, tell her you need to do this or that and she adjusts and she does it,” Cabral added.
The Canada international isn’t just an asset with her technical excellence and attacking prowess, either. She has a marvellous work rate and will not shirk her defensive responsibilities. That only six players in the WSL won possession back more often in the final third last year is evidence of how that can be of use in a team’s pressing.
Perhaps most significant of all, given she has become the first million-pound player in the women’s game and joined a huge club, is that she has a fantastic attitude. Wise beyond her years and with a good head on her shoulders, Smith is regarded as a dream to coach and someone who never forgets those who have helped her along her journey.
Aged 20, Smith is obviously not the finished article yet, however. She can be more clinical, with her shot conversion rate of 14 per cent the second-lowest of the 17 players to join her in scoring at least seven WSL goals last season, and she can also be more creative. Despite being technically outstanding and having the ability to breeze past defenders, she didn’t register an assist last term and only carved out 15 chances for team-mates. One would imagine both of those things will improve with time and experience, as her final product becomes more refined and her decision-making gets better.
As Arsenal fans discover the news that the deal has been completed, many neutrals will likely be very intrigued by this move, too. Clearly a fantastic young talent with bags of potential, Smith is going to be tasked with making a big step up by signing for a club that just won the Champions League and wants to win the WSL title.
She’s also not going to be guaranteed game time quite like she was at Sporting and Liverpool, where she was the team’s star player on both occasions. Competing with players like Chloe Kelly, Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord for minutes is something that can improve her, of course, but it will also present a new challenge, one in which she might be asked to be an impact sub and where she’ll likely have to deal with some disappointment from time to time.
There’s also the mental task of coping with the pressure of being the first million pound player in the women’s game. Can Smith carry that weight of expectation? There is nothing to suggest she isn’t capable of doing so.
