Barcelona are set to break Liverpool’s current transfer record with a bid for Manchester City and Brazil star
Liverpool still hold the record transfer fee in English football for both the men’s and women’s game, even as the 2026 summer transfer window produces a string of broken records elsewhere.
Last summer, Liverpool broke their own transfer record by signing Alexander Isak from Newcastle United for a reported £125 million on 1 September 2025. The Sweden international became the club’s most expensive signing ever, surpassing the £116 million paid for Florian Wirtz earlier that summer, and the deal also set a new British transfer record.
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In the same window, Liverpool made Women’s Super League history by selling Olivia Smith to Arsenal for a reported £1 million. The Canada international became the first player to command a seven-figure fee from a WSL club, and the deal also stood as a world-record transfer fee in women’s football at the time.
That record now looks set to fall. According to Sky Sports, Barcelona are closing in on a deal for Manchester City forward Kerolin worth £1.28 million (€1.5m), which would surpass the fee Arsenal paid for Smith and make the Brazil international the most expensive player ever sold by a WSL club.
The proposed fee would also become Barcelona’s most expensive signing in the women’s game, comfortably eclipsing what they paid Manchester City for Keira Walsh in 2022.
Kerolin only joined Manchester City in January 2025 and has two years left on her contract. Despite her short stay in England, the 26-year-old was a key part of City’s 2025-26 WSL title-winning campaign, scoring nine league goals in 15 appearances after returning from injury.
Should Barcelona complete the move, Liverpool’s women’s record will pass to Smith’s successor as the league’s most expensive outgoing sale.
Smith’s transfer will nonetheless remain a landmark moment, having been the first seven-figure deal involving a WSL club and a marker of the league’s growing financial strength.
Barcelona Femeni
Kerolin
Manchester City Women
Olivia Smith