Women’s transfer market growing, but big leagues dominate a market still to reach maturity, finds report

January 23 – The women’s transfer market is growing with transfer volume rising rapidly, and more clubs are working internationally, but fee-paying transactions are still a minority of overall activity.

A report by Football Benchmark finds that while the women’s transfer market is “scaling quickly it is still in the early stages of structural maturity.”

The report says that transfers “involving fees are central to value creation and redistribution, allowing selling clubs to reinvest in player development, professional environments, staffing, and infrastructure. A continued shift towards a higher share of fee-paying deals will therefore be a key determinant of how sustainably the market develops over the coming years.”

The Football Benchmark report analyses the changes in the volume of international transfers, where transfer spending is focusses, the growth of transfer record fees, and the overall sustainability of the market.

Currently the growth in international transfers is confined to the top end of the women’s games with England’s WSL and the USA’s NWSL dominating spend and breaking transfer records, but the same growth isn’t being seen outside the leading women’s leagues.

While the number of international transfers during the summer window has roughly doubled since 2021, with FIFA data reporting more than 1,100 moves in the most recent summer window, according to FIFA data, “the structure of the market remains relatively immature,” finds the report.

Most transfers are driven by contract expiry rather than fees with only 13% of transfers in 2025 being permanent, fee-paying deals. This compares to 20% in the men’s game. However, the report notes that 13% is an increase from about 5% in 2022.

Total transfer spending between 2018 and 2024 increased 26 times, with a 150% rise between 2023 and 2024 alone.

But the spending is being driven by a small group of leagues. The report finds that when analysing the 20 transfers with the highest fee across each of the last five seasons (100 transfers in total), “the top end of the women’s market remains geographically concentrated. On the one side, 96 out of 100 buyers came from only five markets, with the strongest representation coming from the United States’ NWSL and England’s WSL. In total fee terms, US and English clubs accounted for over three-quarters of spending within this sample.”

The report notes that while 83% of sellers come from six leagues, a further seven leagues have also recorded player sales at ‘meaningful’ fee levels.

FIFA data shows that in 2018, only 18 clubs paid transfer fees and 16 clubs received fees. By 2024, this had grown to 124 buying clubs and 109 selling clubs.

The growth of the fee size is also indicative of the changing market, In 2024 the record transfer fee passed €500,000. In 2025 the record was broken four times, with seven-figure transfers involving Naomi Girma, Olivia Smith, and Lizbeth Ovalle, before reaching a new high of €1.65 million with Grace Geyoro’s move from Paris Saint-Germain FC to London City Lionesses.

Football Benchmark says the fees “were executed within measured financial parameters. Based on the latest available financial information (2023/24), three of the five buying clubs spent less than 10% of their operating revenues on a single transaction, with the remaining two below the 20% threshold.”

“One thing is certain: the coming years will be defined by continued growth. The key question will be which clubs are able to adapt most effectively by aligning recruitment, talent development, and financial strategy, and how the transfer market evolves as a shared ecosystem that supports not only top-end growth but the long-term development of the women’s game,” concludes the report.

To see the full report, click here.

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