Lizbeth Ovalle is expected to join the Orlando Pride from Mexico’s Tigres UANL on a record transfer fee of $1.5m (£1.1m), a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The deal is expected to be completed by the National Women’s Soccer League’s transfer deadline on Monday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been formally signed.
The transfer fee surpasses the $1.3m (£1m) fee Arsenal paid Liverpool for Canadian striker Olivia Smith in the English Women’s Super League last month. That broke the previous record fee of $1.1m that Chelsea paid the San Diego Wave for defender Naomi Girma in January. It also surpasses the previous Orlando Pride record for an incoming transfer, with the club having paid $740,000 to Shanghai Shengli in what was then the second-highest women’s transfer fee.
Ovalle, a 25-year-old winger who placed No 86 in the Guardian’s most recent top 100 women’s footballers list, has led Tigres of Liga MX Femenil to six titles since her debut with the club in 2017. She is the team’s all-time leading scorer with 136 goals.
She’s also made 58 appearances for the Mexican national team with 20 goals, having made her senior debut in 2018. She turned heads in the US last year, scoring a well-placed chip to put Mexico ahead of the US in the W Gold Cup. She finished as second-top scorer in that tournament and was named to the Best XI of the competition.
Nicknamed La Maga (The Magician), Ovalle is well-known in the region for her confidence, flair and capacity for audacious goals. She went viral on social media this year with a so-called “scorpion kick” goal, facing away from the net, in a Tigres match against Guadalajara.
She’ll join one of the NWSL’s best teams in Orlando City, the defending NWSL champions and Shield winners. The Pride are currently third in the league table, 12 points behind runaway leaders Kansas City Current, but still boast plenty of star power. Ovalle will join an attacking unit that includes Banda and Brazil legend Marta this year, and will presumably play a leading role in the team moving forward. Orlando will lose midfielder Ally Watt to NWSL expansion team Denver Summit FC this coming offseason, with the Colorado side having loaned her back to Orlando for the remainder of 2025.
Ovalle could theoretically be in line for a debut with her new team on Friday, 29 August v Gotham FC. The team has eight more regular season NWSL games after that point, plus four games in the group stage of the Concacaf W Champions Cup.
