London City Lionesses secure blockbuster signing of Grace Geyoro from PSG

By Canadian Press on September 5, 2025.

London City Lionesses marked their arrival in the Women’s Super League by completing the blockbuster signing of France midfielder Grace Geyoro from Paris Saint-Germain on Friday, making her one of the world’s most expensive female players.

Responding to reports in the British media saying London City had paid a world-record fee of 1.4 million pounds ($1.88 million), the club’s chief executive, Martin Semmens, told talkSPORT radio: “It’s a big deal, it’s in and around the 1 million (pounds) mark ($1.35 million), but it’s not actually a world record, sadly.”

The biggest fee paid for a female soccer player currently is $1.5 million by the Orlando Pride to sign Mexico star Lizbeth Ovalle from Tigres UANL last month.

Neither London City nor PSG Féminines disclosed the exact fee for Geyoro when announcing the transfer, but coach Jocelyn Precheur acknowledged the size of the deal when asked what the 28-year-old midfielder would bring to the team.

“She is a complete player with a lot of experience,” Precheur said of Geyoro, who has made 102 appearances and scored 22 goals for France.

“It has been a long (time) talking during the summer to make this deal but I’m very satisfied, very happy, to start working with her.”

The women’s transfer record has been broken three times in 2025, starting with U.S. defender Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave to Chelsea for $1.1 million in January) and then Canada striker Olivia Smith (Liverpool to Arsenal for $1.3 million in July).

Also Friday, Chelsea completed the signing of Alyssa Thompson from Angel City for a reported fee of around 1 million pounds ($1.35 million) in another transfer highlighting of the rapid growth of the women’s game.

Who are London City Lionesses?

London City is a club founded in 2019 and owned by American businesswoman Michele Kang, who also owns Lyon — PSG’s biggest rival in the French league — and the Washington Spirit in the United States. Kang — estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.2 billion — heads Kynisca Sports International, a women-led, multi-team global sports organization.

Geyoro is the 16th and biggest signing made by London City Lionesses since getting promoted at the end of last season to the WSL, where it will be the first top-flight independent women’s team.

Other signings include England forward Nikita Parris, Jana Fernandez from Barcelona and Danielle van de Donk from Lyon.

“It was very important to have this kind of profile in our squad for this season,” Precheur said. “We know we are a young club, with a very short history and we want to develop this history.

“We need to build a team but when you are such a young club you need to breed a culture and all the staff and leaders of the club are working very hard to breed this culture.”

The 2025-26 WSL season begins Friday. London City visits Arsenal for its opener on Saturday.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Steve Douglas, The Associated Press