This summer’s Women’s 超級聯賽 transfer window has had pretty much everything. It’s had a record-breaking transaction, taking Olivia Smith to Arsenal for the first million pound fee in the women’s game; it’s had heroes of the Lionesses’ European Championship triumph on the move, with Michelle Agyemang loaned back to Brighton and Chloe Kelly making her Arsenal switch permanent; and it’s seen established superstars move to the English top-flight for the first time, including two Champions League winners in Fridolina Rolfo and Ellie Carpenter.
It means there are a lot of new faces for fans of the WSL to get to know this summer, be they players who have already made a real name for themselves overseas, or young, upcoming talents with the potential to be world-beaters. That intrigue permeates across the league, too, with it not just the big guns who have been making a splash in the market.
So, who are the new signings that fans should be keeping an eye on for the 2025-26 WSL season? BALLGM picks out 10 names worth tracking as the new campaign begins…
This summer’s Women’s Super League transfer window has had pretty much everything. It’s had a record-breaking transaction, taking Olivia Smith to Arsenal for the first million pound fee in the women’s game; it’s had heroes of the Lionesses’ European Championship triumph on the move, with Michelle Agyemang loaned back to Brighton and Chloe Kelly making her Arsenal switch permanent; and it’s seen established superstars move to the English top-flight for the first time, including two Champions League winners in Fridolina Rolfo and Ellie Carpenter.
It means there are a lot of new faces for fans of the WSL to get to know this summer, be they players who have already made a real name for themselves overseas, or young, upcoming talents with the potential to be world-beaters. That intrigue permeates across the league, too, with it not just the big guns who have been making a splash in the market.
So, who are the new signings that fans should be keeping an eye on for the 2025-26 WSL season? 球類運動 picks out 10 names worth tracking as the new campaign begins…
Right up there as a contender for the biggest signing of the WSL window is Fridolina Rolfo, whose release from 巴塞隆納 earlier this summer was due to the club’s financial issues, not poor performance. Aged 31, the Sweden international arrives at Manchester United on a free transfer and brings not only top-class quality to the table but also a ton of experience, the kind of which head coach Marc Skinner is keen to add to his team as they look to take that next step and become a serious contender for all domestic honours, as well as being a regular in the Champions League.
A two-time European champion who has lifted titles in Sweden, Germany and Spain, Rolfo is a deadly winger who can create for others or find the back of the net herself with remarkable consistency. Injuries once threatened to derail her career, with her going as far to describe her battle with them as a ‘war’ at one point, but she has shown incredible resilience and work ethic to come out on top in that department, to mark herself out as one of the best wide players in the game. She is exactly the kind of footballer that United need in order to go to the next level.
There are always exciting prospects that shine at youth team level who fans are desperate to see get their chance in the senior game, and Carla Camacho has been one of them for a long time. The striker has been a goal-scoring sensation for Spain’s age-group sides, playing a key role in their triumphs at the 2022 Under-17 World Cup and the 2023 U19 Euros, but that never translated into significant opportunities at 皇家馬德里, where very few youth prospects have been able to breakthrough since the club’s entrance into the women’s game. An ACL injury at the end of 2023 didn’t help her cause, either.
Camacho did manage to net a few goals as a fringe player in the Spanish capital last year, having returned from that devastating setback, but it felt like the right time for her to move on this summer, in order to increase the chances of a serious senior breakthrough. It’s at Brighton, renowned for trusting in youth, that the 20-year-old will hope that happens. If Seagulls head coach Dario Vidosic can help her progress towards her incredible potential, he’ll have quite a player on his hands.
Ranked 18th on the 2022 Women’s NXGN list, Maya Hijikata has been one of the most exciting prospects in the Japan youth set-up for several years, and now she has the opportunity to show her talent to an even greater audience following a summer switch to 阿斯頓維拉. It was likely last year that the 21-year-old firmly put herself on the radar of many clubs, after winning the Golden Boot in the U20 Women’s Asian Cup in March and carrying that form into the U20 World Cup in September, where she scored another five goals. Her efforts in those tournaments helped Japan reach two finals.
But Hijikata is not just a top prospect who has exclusively performed well in youth football. The versatile playmaker firmly established herself in Tokyo Verdy Beleza’s first team, helping them to win the title in her final season, and had broken into Japan’s senior national team, debuting in October of last year, before departing for 英格蘭. As more and more Japanese talent flocks to Europe, and especially the WSL, Hijikata is one of the most exciting new arrivals to keep an eye on.
Until Lizbeth Ovalle’s record-breaking move to the Orlando Pride, Olivia Smith was not only the biggest signing of the summer in women’s football, she was the biggest signing the sport had ever seen. It was back in July that Arsenal made the 20-year-old the first million pound player in the women’s game, owing to some electric displays for an inconsistent Liverpool side in her only season on Merseyside.
This move continues the remarkable ascendancy that has characterised Smith’s young career to date. After one superb season with Sporting CP, Liverpool paid a club-record fee to sign the forward and now, after one year with the Reds, Arsenal have followed suit. She isn’t the sort of finished article one might expect a team to splash so much cash on, but it is potential that the Gunners have fallen for, with the Canada international having plenty of room for growth alongside her already game-changing ability.
It’s going to be intriguing to see how Smith adapts to yet another step up in level, as she prepares to turn out for a team that won the Champions League back in May and will expect to challenge for the WSL title this term.
Few, if any, WSL clubs have made a splash in the summer transfer market quite like London City Lionesses. Backed by billionaire owner Michele Kang, the newly-promoted side have attacked the window like a team that has bigger ambitions than just staying up, with former Arsenal and Lyon playmaker Danielle van de Donk, Italy lynchpin Elena Linari and the England international duo of Nikita Parris and Katie Zelem among their most eye-catching arrivals.
Arguably their best signing, though, is that of Jana Fernandez. While some arrivals are either promising talents that have the potential to grow into established stars, such as Dutch defender Isa Kardinaal, or players with plenty of experience but the lingering question of whether their best years are behind them, Fernandez was a regular starter for a star-studded Barcelona side last term, aged just 23.
That fans in Catalunya were devastated to lose the talented young defender says it all. Despite her age, she boasts valuable experience at both club and international level, she has the versatility to play centrally or on the right and, crucially, she feels like she is on the brink of hitting a level with her game that would make her an asset for most top clubs. If Barcelona were not in such a difficult financial situation, Fernandez would be turning out on a regular basis for the three-time European champions in this upcoming season. What a coup it is for London City to have her on their books instead.
If Manchester City had waited until after Euro 2025 to complete the signing of Iman Beney, they’d have likely found it trickier to get a deal done. Fortunately, the Cityzens did a fantastic job with their scouting and secured the 19-year-old’s signature before she starred for Switzerland at their home tournament, helping La Nati reach the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time.
An incredibly versatile player, it was as a right wing-back that Beney caught the eye this past summer, but she can also play as an orthodox full-back or in the forward line, either as a winger or a more central figure. Were it not for some cruel luck, she might’ve announced herself on a big stage much sooner, too. Beney was the youngest member of Switzerland’s 2023 Women’s World Cup squad, until a brutal ACL injury suffered in training forced her to withdraw.
It’s not an easy setback for any player to come back from, but the teenager has done so admirably. Named to the Team of the Season in the Swiss league in her breakout year at 16 years old, she returned to that XI last term when she helped fire Young Boys to the title with eight goals, efforts which clearly caught City’s eye. How Beney fits into her new team, considering how many different positions she can play, only time will tell, but it’s clear she is capable of making an impact right away.
Few new faces to the WSL this season will be as well-known already as Ellie Carpenter, who has established herself as one of the best right-backs in the world since breaking through in her native Australia at the age of 15. A two-time Champions League winner during a five-year stint with Lyon, the defender arrives at Chelsea where plenty of those in the building are familiar to her – Sonia Bompastor as her previous coach in France, while Lucy Bronze, Catarina Macario and Kadeisha Buchanan were all team-mates across the Channel.
There’s no doubt that Carpenter will settle into the new league with ease, given her immense quality, and have an immediate impact, but there is certainly intrigue at how her integration into this Chelsea team will work. Bronze is a major leader for the Blues and was almost ever-present last season at right-back, the position Carpenter also plays. How will Bompastor fit both of them into her team? It’s obviously something she will have figured out before completing the signing of the 25-year-old, who immediately becomes one of the best players in the WSL upon arrival.
Continuing the trend of Japanese players landing in the WSL is Toko Koga, who ranked sixth on the 2025 NXGN list earlier this year. A key starter for the senior national team at last year’s Olympic Games – when only an extra-time goal from the eventual champions, the United States, sent the Nadeshiko home – Koga had spent the previous six months acclimatising to European football at Feyenoord. Even in the early stages of her 18 months with the Dutch side, it felt like they wouldn’t have her for long.
And so it proved, as 托特納姆熱刺 swooped for the 19-year-old earlier this month in what remains the only summer signing made by new head coach Martin Ho. Arriving from an impressive stint in charge of Brann in Norway, Ho is well-versed in developing young talent and looks like he could be a great figure for Koga to work under at this point of her career.
A technically-gifted defender who also boasts great athleticism, versatility and the ability to be an aerial threat in the opposition’s box, this next step in her career will be a challenge, but few would bet against her taking it in her stride.
It’s not a stretch to say that Chiamaka Nnadozie is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Having helped Nigeria win the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this summer, keeping four clean sheets in six matches, the 24-year-old is up for the first-ever Women’s Yashin Trophy at next year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, and now she is making the step up into arguably the best league in the women’s game, after five years in France with Paris FC.
It’s remarkable, really, that Nnadozie is still so young given what she has already achieved and the reputation she has carved out for herself in such a short space of time. Her remarkable shot-stopping helped Paris FC regularly defy the odds, particularly in qualifying for the Champions League group stages in the 2023-24 season, and she signed off on a high when she helped the club win the French Cup back in May, stunning Paris Saint-Germain in the final.
Brighton have had one of the best transfer windows of any WSL club, but Nnadozie could be the crown jewel.
Sydney Lohmann is one of those players that any follower of the women’s game knows is incredibly talented, but she hasn’t quite been able to showcase that in a big way just yet. A Bayern Munich debutante at 16 years old, injuries here and there have often disrupted Lohmann’s rhythm, while her versatility has sometimes been more of a curse than a blessing, depriving her of the flow that comes from playing regularly in one particular role.
Hopefully her arrival at Manchester City can change all of that. Still only 25 years old, the midfielder has incredible technical ability, fantastic passing range and an eye for goal, all of which is complemented by her strong work rate on the other side of the ball. The Cityzens really could not have found a better replacement for Jill Roord following her surprise departure to Twente this summer. Lohmann can do everything you want a midfielder to do, and she can do it all to a remarkably high level.
