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Racheal Kundananji at the 2023 World Cup in a game against Spain
Photo:
Kim Price / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
Zambian international Racheal Kundananji has become the most expensive female footballer in history. The 23-year-old is moving from the Spanish first division club Madrid CFF to the new team Bay FC from San Jose in the US professional league NWSL for a base fee of 735,000 euros; with a bonus the sum can rise to 810,000 euros.
The largest transfer fee in women's football to date was the around 400,000 euros that FC Barcelona paid to Manchester City in 2022 for the Englishwoman Keira Welsh. For a long time, transfer fees in women's football were rarely communicated or simply no significant sums were paid. However, with increasing professionalization and increasing TV revenues in women's football worldwide, the topic is increasingly coming to the fore.
An expensive change is also imminent in the Bundesliga
In the Bundesliga, German international Lena Oberdorf is set to move from VfL Wolfsburg to Bayern Munich for a sum of several hundred thousand euros, according to various media reports. The world record for men is held by the Brazilian Neymar, for whom Paris St. Germain transferred a total of 222 million euros to FC Barcelona in 2017.
Kundananji, who has a four-year contract with Bay FC, had scored 33 goals in 43 league games for Madrid. Last year she scored once in Zambia's 3-2 victory in the World Cup dress rehearsal against Germany.
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