With Naomi Girma breaking the world record female soccer player transfer fee, we decided to look at the pay differences between the top levels of men’s and women’s sports. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Interesting times

United States defender Naomi Girma has just broken the world record of the most expensive women’s soccer player. She is moving to Chelsea for a deal worth about £900,000 ($1.1m), which significantly outstrips the previous £685,000 ($843,886) milestone that Racheal Kundananji set in February 2024 when moving to Bay FC.

Girma moves from San Diego Wave to a star-studded team, with the club also signing high-profile players like Sandy Baltimore and Lucy Bronze this season as they look to challenge for the English Women’s Super League title for the sixth consecutive time.

the transfer record will undoubtedly be broken again soon

The women’s game is garnering more and more attention, and the transfer record will undoubtedly be broken again soon. We decided to see if this is a trend in other sports and compared the financial sums involved with their male counterparts.

Soccer

The 24-year-old Naomi Girma became the first million-dollar player in women’s soccer, with the price elevated by the bidding war between Chelsea and French side Lyon. It is currently unclear how much she will earn per year.

Girma’s new teammate Sam Kerr is third on the list of the best-paid players in the game, with the striker set to earn £449,000 ($553,145) per year after agreeing to a new deal in June despite still recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Aitana Bonmati signed a deal in September that will see her earn about $1m

Back-to-back Ballon d’Or winner and Barcelona star Aitana Bonmati signed a contract extension in September that will see her earn about $1m each season, topping the list. This is in addition to her endorsement deals with Alpro, Nissan, and Adidas.

The money in men’s soccer, by comparison, is eye-watering. Neymar’s 2017 transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for €222m ($231m) remains the most expensive transfer in the game.

It’s the rule rather than the exception that top men’s soccer players earn multi-millions annually. Despite being 39 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo is the best-paid player and is reportedly set to sign a one-year extension and earn €185m ($193m) for doing so.

Basketball

The WNBA has been growing in popularity in recent years, aided in particular by the emergence of superstar Caitlin Clark, who broke all kinds of records in the college game with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

She’s now playing for the Indiana Fever, whose home games at the team’s 17,274-seat arena are regularly selling out and attracting better average numbers than the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. They also smashed WNBA television viewership and betting numbers.

Despite this growing interest, top players only earn six-figure sums for their efforts. Jackie Young, a two-time WNBA champion, tops the list, but takes home little more than $250,000 each year through her Las Vegas Aces contract. Caitlin Clark is well back on the charts with a $76,535 base salary.

The current WNBA collective bargaining agreement runs until 2027, although the players’ association has the option to opt-out in November. This could help players start earning more by negotiating higher minimum salaries and better bonuses.

The NBA’s best-paid player is Steph Curry, who earns $55.7m, dwarfing Jackie Young’s salary by 220x. Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal will all make at least $50m in the 2024-2025 season.

Tennis

Tennis is a sport with the most equality at the upper echelons of the men’s and women’s games. The purses for each of the Grand Slam events are the same. For example, the men’s and women’s singles champions for the 2025 Australian Open will both earn AU$3.5m ($2.2m).

same pay structure has been in place for many years

The same pay structure has been in place for many years, starting in 1973 after American superstar Billie Jean King threatened to skip the US Open if there wasn’t equal pay. This was the first professional sporting event of any kind to do so. The Australian Open did the same in 2001, followed by the French Open and Wimbledon in 2007.

While the biggest events offer equality, the same isn’t always the case for lower-tier events. For the 2024 Italian Open, a prominent event on the ATP and WTA calendar, for example, the men’s singles champion won €963,225 ($1m) versus €699,690 ($728,866) on the female side, a 38% difference.

Golf

Finally, while interest in women’s golf is hitting sky-high levels, they still have some catching up to do to their male counterparts. The biggest purse for a men’s Major Championship in 2024 was $21.5m at the US Open, compared to $12m for the US Women’s Open.

The purses for the bigger PGA Tour events have been increasing in the past couple of years due to the threat of LIV Golf. The rival tour has stripped the men’s game of some of its biggest stars, with the PGA Tour trying to hold onto remaining stars like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler by throwing more money at them.

US Open purse rose from $4m in 2014 to $12m a decade later

The money in women’s golf is still on an upward trajectory; the US Open purse rose from $4m in 2014 to $12m a decade later.