I figured it would be good to have a chapter to keep posted on relevant women's soccer/football. Let me kick off with a huge report: Is Harder going to Chelsea for 350.000 euro? https://www.soccerdonna.de/de/perni...echsel-zum-fc-chelsea/news/anzeigen_7504.html
Considering heavy travel restrictions in Europe it was to be expected that Harder will chose to be closer to her partner Eriksson. Fun fact: Ewa Pajor has 1m euro transfer fee on her contract with Wolfsburg. I guess only Aulas could afford her. Yuka Momiki (OL Reign) transfered on loan to Linkopings. Unfortunatelly her debut in Damallsvenskan lasted only 17 minutes as she was injuried (foot fracture) and will probably miss rest of the season.
Top five league transfers: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...mminile-serie-a-d1-feminine-primera-iberdrola
OL has dominated here so long many think the rest of D1 Arkema is just a farm girl league but that’s far from the truth. On an off day Lyon can get tripped up by mid table clubs and if that happens so rarely it just shows how seriously they take each and every game. The gap between OL and PSG has been a fine line for several years now and each H2H contest is hard fought; Lyon’s edge for the title is that they drop fewer points elsewhere. All four top leagues now have a pair of clubs outpacing the others, and though the FA WSL is quickly catching up France is still tops here. And even if they’re anonymous outside France I don’t think Bordeaux and Fleury would have trouble standing up against Arsenal and West Ham or Hoffenheim and Frankfurt.
I would say based on its tremendous pickups/transfer season, the WSL is the strongest league in Europe. Looking more closely; they got most of the English, Irish & Scottish NT’s. Than add what seems like the entire Australian NT & 4 starters from the USWNT, 5 from Holland & so on down the list. In fact looking at Guardians top 100 players of 2019 list, they got now the 3 best players in the world(Kerr, Bronze, Miedema). Plus they’ve just added Pernille Harder & this season’s NWSL mvp, Rachel Daly(who got picked by West Ham, only finished 8th). Last season’s 6th place Everton, picked up Gauvin, Raso & Christenson(types that even Lyon would go after). #4 Man U just added Press & Heath. Since the Bundesliga has faltered for not keeping up with salaries for top level players(Harder was the only Guardian top 20 player they had) France is in an good position to be called the 2nd best league in the world, but PSG, Bordeaux & Montpellier didn’t have particularly good recruitment seasons. Some might feel Spain’s league is pretty strong, but outside Barca, Athletico Madrid & Real, top recruits are lacking & the league’s flagship NT is still only ranked #13
I agree that the WSL is or will soon be the top league in the world but : 1) Press and especially Heath are quality signings for MU but i'd bet the house they'll head back to the states as soon as USWNT camp for the olympics starts and will play in the NWSL after. 2) Though they're definitely good additions for Everton and having that kind of player on a 6th place side enforces the claim that WSL is getting stronger top to bottom, i dispute that Lyon would go for those three players : Christensen was on the roster first half of last season and frankly no one understood why. I've seen plenty of Raso at Thorns and she's in the same general class. As for Gauvin, the numbers she's put up for France (which aren't even that good) are because she's been one of Diacre's inexplicable pet players - she's done nothing for MHSC for years now and there's no way OL would possibly consider her.
The top of FA WSL is clearly among the best teams, but the league itself is not on top level yet. I made a calculation of the best line-ups (starting XIs) for the top European teams based on my opinion in terms of FIFA ratings and the results for the top teams are as follows: 1. Olympique Lyon (France) 87.7 2. Chelsea (England) 83.8 3. Arsenal (England) 82.6 4. VfL Wolfsburg (Germany) 82.5 5. Manchester City (England) 82.4 6. Paris Saint-Germain (France) 81.8 7. FC Bayern Munchen (Germany) 81.5 8. FC Barcelona (Spain) 81.4 9. Atletico Madrid (Spain) 79.0 This result is interesting, as VfL Wolfsburg used to be a steady 2nd in the past few years, but Harder's departure made the team significantly weaker
and you got to remember Man U, Everton & West Ham made some phenomenal pickups as well/they could easily be #11, #12 & 13th. unfortunately Arsenal wouldn't be able to put that 3rd place ranking to the test much as they didn't qualify for this season's Chmapions League don't think Wolfsburg loose too much, they 've groomed the 18 year old would be super star, Lena Oberdorf, to take her place....and she responded by scoring two goals in her debut.
Everton has good players, sure, but not really players that are top notch. I can calculations for you, but most players will be in de mid 70s, with maybe a few players touching the 80. The same goes for West Ham. Man Utd is probably somewhere in 11-20, indeed. I intend to extend my list of teams. The loss of Harder is pretty huge (a player I rated 92) for VfL Wolfsburg. Oberdorf is a great talent, but she first has to perform a bit more to touch those ratings. Currently I rated her 81.Gunnarsdottir, Minde, Maritz(, Neto) leaving is a pretty big deal as well. Hendrich and Oberdorf are good replacements, but Bremer is not yet on this level as well (maybe she will continue her good form of past season though). An important thing to note is that I also base my ratings on "(proven) player quality", and not only on form.
The one problem Wolfsburg might have is the continues weakening of the Bundesliga who have only one other club that pays a pro salary(Bayern Munich). Too show how bad it is; the coach of last season’s 3rd place team(Hoffenheim) resigned when the owner said he wanted a full time coach, so he didn’t want to give up his day job as an school teacher! and then HOF only had one German & 2 Austrians with any NT experience PSG probably deserves credit for beating handily Arsenal in the CL quarters, but than, besides not starting their new signees, they were quite late In getting back into training and this just in; reports that Alex Morgan might just sign with Tottenham Spurs. Once the transfer window is closed, I’ll check with the 2019 Guardian 100 list to see just how the WSL has compared to the rest
Maybe he likes his job as a teacher? With 59 years it is also a bit late to start a big coaching career.
understandable since I' sure he's got an all important pension coming with his love for teaching. But other Euro leagues have former national team managers coaching some of their clubs/so very cynical with whats happening to German woso & in conjunction with when Germany momentarily was on top with it's gold medal win at the 2016 Olympics/only to hand off the manager job to an novice like Stefi Jones with no prior coaching experience/then when they finally fire her ass & get an capable one like Horst H who would think would take on an dream job of coaching a team into the World Cup wasn't his cup of tea/handing it to MVT who decides to do an rebuilding job right there & then, at the WC now can't you see the satire?
I made a figure with the progression of record transfer fees in men's football and in women's football. Women's football is currently 50-55 years 'behind' men's football in terms fo record transfer fees. Both men's football and womens' football show an exponential increase in the record transfer fee versus time. For men's football data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_association_football_transfers Women football data: mostly https://www.soccerdonna.de/de/ Progression of highest women's football transfer fees: 2006: Essi Sainio from HJK Helsinki to Turbine Potsdam for 10,000€ 2007: Anna Blässe from Hamburger SV to VfL Wolfsburg for 20,000€ 2011: Sofia Jakobsson from Umea IK to Rossiyanka for 50,000€ 2015: Griedge Mbock from EA Guingamp to Olympique Lyonnais for 100,000€ 2017: Kadidiatou Diani from FCF Juvisy to Paris Saint-Germain for 150,000€ 2020: Pernille Harder from VfL Wolfsburg to Chelsea for 350,000€ At the current rate of increase, we will see the first seven digit transfer in 2025-2026.
I am just curious to see it happening in 5 years time because revenues are not climbing up that quickly. If a team puts 1 000 000€ just on a transfer fee, they would probably have at least a 20 000 000€ budget imo.
List of most expensive transfers known so far. Please let me know if I am missing out on transfers I'll probably enlarge the list later on. 01. Pernille Harder from VfL Wolfsburg to Chelsea for 350,000€ (09-2020) 02. Kadidiatou Diani from FCF Juvisy to Paris Saint-Germain for 150,000€ (07-2017) 03. Griedge Mbock from EA Guingamp to Olympique Lyon for 100,000€ (07-2015) ==. Valerie Gauvin from Montpellier HSC to Everton for 100,000€ (08-2020) 05. Ramona Bachmann from FC Rosengard to VfL Wolfsburg for 95,000€ (08-2015) 06. Rose Lavelle from Washington Spirit to OL Reign for 90,000€ (08-2020) ==. Becky Sauerbrunn from Utah Royals to Portland Thorns for 90,000€ (03-2020) 08. Alex Greenwood from Manchester United to Olympique Lyon for 60,000€ (08-2019) 09. Fran Kirby from Reading to Chelsea for 56,000€ (08-2015) 10. Carolin Simon from Olympique Lyon to Bayern Munchen for 50,000€ (08-2019) ==. Marie-Laure Delie from Montpellier HSC to Paris Saint-Germain for 50,000€ (07-2013) ==. Dominique Janssen from Arsenal to VfL Wolfsburg for 50,000€ (07-2019) ==. Mapi Leon from Atletico Madrid to FC Barcelona for 50,000€ (08-2017) ==. Sofia Jakobsson from Umea IK to Rossiyanka for 50,000€ (09-2011) 15. Michele Vasconcelos from Chicago Red Stars to Utah Royals for 46,500€ (09-2020) 16. Nadia Nadim from Fortuna Hjorring to Portland Thorns for 45,000€ (01-2016) 17. Sofie Svava from Brondby IF to FC Rosengard for 35,000€ (07-2019) 18. Lotta Okvist from Hammarby IF to Manchester United for 30,000€ (08-2019) ==. Christiane Endler from Valencia CF to Paris Saint-Germain for 30,000€ (07-2017) ==. Lieke Martens from FC Rosengard to FC Barcelona for 30,000€ (07-2017) ==. Sonia Bermudez from Atletico Madrid to UD Levante for 30,000€ (07-2018) With regards to top buyer clubs for top 21 transfer fees : 3 players: Paris Saint-Germain 2 players: Chelsea, FC Barcelona, Olympique Lyon, VfL Wolfsburg, Portland Thorns 1 player: Bayern Munchen, Everton, FC Rosengard, Manchester United, OL Reign, Rossiyanka, UD Levante, Utah Royals Countries of top buyer clubs for top 21 transfer fees: 5 players: France 4 players: England, United States 3 players: Germany, Spain 2 players: - 1 player: Russia, Sweden
I noticed I missed out on Chawinga: ~about 154,000€ http://www.zampirampira.com/2019/04/tabitha-most-expensive-player-in-women-football/ https://www.soccerdonna.de/de/tabitha-chawinga/transfers/spieler_30050.html
Isabell Herlovsen from LSK to Jiangsu Suning for around 120 000$ (Feb 2017) Paulina Dudek from Medyk Konin to PSG for 25 000 € (Jan 2018) Player minimal annual wage in Japan's new pro-league starting next year (WE League) is set around 25 000$
An update: Progression of highest women's football transfer fees: 2006-07: Essi Sainio from HJK Helsinki to Turbine Potsdam for 10,000€ 2007-07: Anna Blässe from Hamburger SV to VfL Wolfsburg for 20,000€ 2011-09: Sofia Jakobsson from Umea IK to Rossiyanka for 50,000€ 2015-07: Griedge Mbock from EA Guingamp to Olympique Lyonnais for 100,000€ 2017-02: Isabell Herlovsen from Lillestrom SK to Jiangsu Suning for 120,000€ 2017-07: Kadidiatou Diani from FCF Juvisy to Paris Saint-Germain for 150,000€ 2018-01: Tabitha Chawinga from Kvarnsvedens IK to Jiangsu Suning for 154,000€ 2020-09: Pernille Harder from VfL Wolfsburg to Chelsea for 350,000€ Side note: Alledgedly, Milene Domingues transfered to Atletico Madrid for 225,000euro in September 2002, but this was a marketing stunt (she was the wife of the Brazilian Ronaldo), rather than market conform. Therefore, this is not included in the list. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/2253370.stm I will probably also report on total transfer spending per year.