Key Highlights
- Last January alone, $5.8m (£4.3m) was spent in the women’s game globally and then a record $12.3m (£9.1m) was splashed in the 2025 summer transfer window, which was nearly twice as much as 12 months earlier and a four-fold increase on 2023.
- What can January 2026 possibly have in store?The upcoming winter window – which opens for English women’s clubs on 2 January and closes on 3 February – has already got off to a blockbuster start even before officially opening.
- The Germany striker Lea Schüller and Norway’s attacking midfielder Signe Gaupset are among those to have already signed for Women’s Super League clubs, but this is set to be a unique window for a different reason than merely the usual clamour for reinforcements. What will women’s football in England look like in 10 years’ time?Read moreRarely have so many of the world’s most influential players been about to enter the final six months of their contracts.
- Whether it be this season’s leading WSL goalscorer Khadija Shaw, Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and Catarina Macario, or a whole host of Barcelona’s regular starters, everywhere you look this winter there are players of huge value whose futures appear uncertain.
- That should make for a wholly unpredictable and potentially volatile window. Many players who starred in last summer’s European Championship final have contracts expiring at the end of June – including England’s Ella Toone, Hannah Hampton and Georgia Stanway – while the same applies for Scotland’s top foreign export, Caroline Weir at Real Madrid, and to Mary Earps at Paris Saint-Germain.
