Another day, another European Championship win for England’s brilliant women. And another-another for their boss Sarina Wiegman, who has now guided each of the last three champions to glory. Much as we could gladly reminisce about that glorious night in Basel (as the inevitable documentary should probably be called), the Euros are now behind us. Which means that the start of the WSL is not too far away.
The Women’s Super League starts a little later than the male equivalent, and doesn’t get underway until the 5th of September. That should give Lucy Bronze time to rest her fractured leg and all of the squad enough recovery time from the hangovers that surely followed That Glorious Night in Basel (we’re trademarking this now).
When it does arrive, though, the season will start with a bang. All six games from the first round will be televised, and they include a blockbuster clash between champions Chelsea and Man City, who finished second to the Blues in 2023/24. That is the first fixture of the new season, while on Sunday, there is a Merseyside derby to savour too.
However, in between those games, Arsenal will play the Lionesses – the London City Lionesses, that is. They are new to the WSL this season, having replaced Palace, and it will be a case of Lionesses versus Lionesses, as the Gunners feature six players who were part of Wiegman’s successful group in Switzerland.
It has been an incredible few months for Arsenal’s England stars as they helped their club upset Barcelona in the Champions League before doing a similar number on Spain in the Euros. The likes of England skipper Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Alessia Russo and super-sub duo Chloe Kelly and Michelle Agyemang will all be lining up for the north Londoners this term.
With that sort of class, Arsenal will hope to push Chelsea even closer this term, having finished second last time around – albeit 12 points back. However, for all the attention Arsenal’s Lionesses will attract and the star quality they bring, it is another player who Gunners fans will be most excited about.
On the 17th of July, Arsenal and Olivia Smith made history, with the club signing the Canadian striker for a world-record fee of £1m. She very possibly has never heard of Trevor Francis but she is – if you like – the female Trevor Francis! Like Francis, she has become the game’s first £1m player, but what can we all expect?
Who Is Olivia Smith? The Seven-Figure Forward
📝 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗟 𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗘: Arsenal have signed Olivia Smith from Liverpool for a world record transfer fee.
She has signed a four-year contract and is the first female in history to be sold for £1M. 🤑💰 pic.twitter.com/Yvd6VXdFXz
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 17, 2025
The fee for Smith was technically undisclosed, but a number of highly reliable sources have said that it was indeed £1m. If we are not 100% certain about that (but why let certainty get in the way of headlines, eh?), we can at least be sure that she has become the most expensive woman in football history. For now, at least.
Back in January, Chelsea signed another North American, albeit one who plays at the opposite end of the pitch and represents the US, not Canada. Central defender Naomi Girma cost the Blues $1.1m. That is around £890,000, and we can, therefore, be very confident that Smith is now the most expensive player in the world.
Career So Far
Leaving aside the headline-grabbing issue of whether or not Arsenal’s new forward cost £1m, it is clear they have signed a young player of immense ability. Let’s take a look at some key facts about Smith:
- Born – Ontario, Canada, on the 5th of August 2004
- Previous club – Liverpool (nine goals in 25 games)
- Canada U20 record – 22 goals in 22 games
- Senior international record – 4 goals in 18 games
- Honours – Canada Soccer Young Player of the Year 2019, 2024; Liverpool Players’ Player and Young Player of the Year 2024/25
A few things stand out there, and her age is the obvious starting point that ties a number of them together. She joined Liverpool a year ago for a substantial fee of £200,000, a lot of money for a 19-year-old moving to a new country. Clearly, it was a fabulous bit of business for the Reds, who bought her from Sporting in Portugal.
She had managed 16 goals from her 28 appearances with the Portuguese giants, which was incredible given she was just 18 when she joined them. She was also voted Portuguese player of the year in a poll of managers and players. Nonetheless, it was a big step up to play in the WSL, but she made the jump look easy.
Her return of seven league goals in 20 games may not look all that impressive. But we have to remember she was playing in a very average Liverpool side. They finished seventh of 12 teams, and only two rivals scored fewer than their poor team return of 22. For a young player in her first season, Smith was sensational and was duly named the club’s Players’ Player of the Season and Players’ Young Player of the Season.
The summary above also shows that she was honoured in Canada as their best young player in 2019 and 2024. To win such an award five years apart is really something and shows just what a precocious talent she was. That is backed up by the fact that she leapt from the U15 team straight into the U20 group, where she was prolific, netting a goal a game.
She was just 15 years and 94 days old when she came off the bench for the full senior side, becoming Canada’s youngest ever player. That was back in 2019, when she won one other cap, but she then spent a number of years dominating at U20 level, before returning to the senior set-up in 2023 to win another couple of caps. One of those was at the 2023 World Cup when she was just 18. In 2024, she established herself fully in the senior side, and she looks set to remain there for many, many years.
What Can the Gunners Expect?
Arsenal fans should be very excited, though it will be interesting to see how boss Renee Slegers uses the array of attacking talent she has at her disposal. Though Smit is, for her age, massively experienced, there will not necessarily be a rush for her to play, and she will certainly not have the same pressure she had at Liverpool.
She may also be used on the right wing, as she is versatile and can offer a lot defensively, too. She is capable of going past players and should be freed up to attack more with the Gunners, though she is very hardworking too. Fast but also very strong, she is a superb finisher and a good pupil too. She certainly has plenty of great players to learn from at Arsenal, but she also has the class to impose herself. And she could, just maybe, help the Gunners wrest the title away from Chelsea.