Starved for playing time at Chelsea over the last couple of seasons, forward Bethany England has finally moved on to pastures greener — or at least, pastures that should feature more playing time, signing for Tottenham Hotspur in a blockbuster move on Wednesday.
A consistent goal-threat over her time in the Women’s Super League, England should help Spurs with their goal scoring draught, and Spurs are counting on that with the fee they are paying for her signature. Indeed, from the men’s game we know attackers tend to command bigger sums of money, but what is so notable about the winter move is the record transfer fee paid by Spurs for the 28-year-old.
Although there remains a general cloak of mystery about fees and wages in the women’s game, with a sizable margin for error when figures are reported, we do know that Chelsea received somewhere in the market of £250,000 for the sale, which makes it one of the priciest transfers in the women’s game and the biggest ever within the WSL.
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For context, England midfielder, Keira Walsh is believed to be the most expensive signing in the women’s game, with her move to Barcelona last summer pocketing Manchester City around £400,000.
As the game grows, it should be no surprise to see larger and larger figures make headlines, but it was only seven and a half years ago that Chelsea were reported to have set a new British transfer record fee for Fran Kirby — at a cost of only one-fifth of England’s fee. Although the sums were disputed by the Blues, the reports suggested that the midfielder moved for between £40,000 and £60,000.
