The first female football player worth millions was born. How did she do it?

In 2014, after leading the North Toronto Neon Men's Football Team as a coach, Marco Milanovic was walking home slowly along the familiar stadium. At this time, a curly haired girl who couldn't even reach his waist completed a perfect diagonal pass from the right wing. Milanovic was so surprised that even the bag on his back and the game schedule of the day fell to the ground. "I stood there and watched her finish the game," said Milanovic, who is now head coach of the AFC Toronto women's football team.

The girl was named Olivia Smith, who was only 10 years old at the time. This week, she moved from Liverpool women's football to Arsenal women's football for £1 million, becoming the first female football player in history to have a transfer fee of £1 million.

Former Florida State University women's football coach Mark Cricorian doesn't remember the specific date, but he remembers the feeling when he first "collided" Smith: she flashed quickly in the video, her footsteps sounded a little blurry, and then she instantly knew and omnipotent.

"According to the university regulations, we invited Smith to Florida State University as soon as she reached the age of permission," Kricorian said. "She ended up in training camp, and her level and strength marveled all my staff. Although she was still young at that time, I told our staff that she might end up being the most talented player we have ever had."

And Joey Lombardi, who was a youth development scout at the Canadian Football Association, sometime in 2016, saw the Whitby-born winger running on the right wing, cutting in with her left foot, breaking through several opponents two years older than her.

"She kicked the ball to the top corner," Lombardi recalled. Before he could determine how the 12-year-old girl's left foot ranks among her peers, Smith sent a perfect cross with her right foot.

"Omni-good feet," he said with a smile, "she really caught my attention."

Smith is now the most profitable women's football signing player in the world, and this is the most unspeakable secret of fate. "As soon as she joined the professional arena, I knew she could succeed," Milanovic said. "We all know." In the past three years, she started from the North Toronto Neon in Ontario, the semi-professional league, becoming the youngest member of Canada's 2023 Women's World Cup roster (less than 19 years old, she broke the record for the youngest adult rookie at 15 years and 94 days more than three years ago), then joined Portugal Sports, and then transferred to Liverpool at a record price. Now she has once again joined Arsenal at a "sky price".

Searching her roots, we will find that she is a petite but fierce girl who keeps growing up and surpassing her own environment.

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"When I met her, she had only played football for two years," Milanovic said. He not only coached North Toronto Neon Men's Football Team, but also coached North Toronto Neon Women's Football Team in 2015. Smith was his opponent at the time and joined his team a year later. "We were playing a man-to-man defense against her... in the under-13 game! We had to play a man-to-man defense against her. Obviously, she was upset about it, but that was exactly where she dominated at the time."

In Milanovich's first year, Smith was the youngest player on the team, and the team was filled with Canadian youth internationals. But that doesn't make any sense. "In her first season, she scored 40 to 45 goals in 15 games," Milanovic said.

"You don't need to be a football player to understand how good she is."

From the beginning, people who know Smith described her as a fusion of grace and strength, she instinctively twisted her hips, and had the ability to transform a small space into a never-ending stage with the help of Taekwondo technology - yes, she practiced Taekwondo. In addition, she also showed a "crazy" side: defense, catching up, and regaining the ball. As she gradually matures, her versatility has also become increasingly stronger. Lombardi pointed out that she is not only competent as a winger, but also as a center, which is the key reason why Arsenal bought her at a high price.

"She is unique in her ability on the court," Cricorian said. He knew Smith when she was a teenager, when she asked Cricorian for training skills with her father Sean, “What makes her unique is that she really makes all her teammates, and everyone around her, better, a rare quality.”

And love. Smith, seven-year-old, would sit in front of the TV with her father, watching the replay of Brazilian stars Ronaldo and Bailey's "sexy dance steps" on the court. At that time, she wrote down her wish in her diary: to play football on behalf of Canada, become a Golden Globe winner, and become a legend.

"I'll go to the local stadium to watch the game," Lombardi said. "Smith will play there."

"She is always excited before the game," Milanovic added. "She will dance. She can't wait for the game to start."

Every time I coach the men's team, she will train with my players, and she always asks for more. Even if she went to the National Development Center of Canada later, she would always come back to train with the male team members. We worry that she overtrains because she wants to stay on the court all the time. We tried to stop her many times, but she always wanted to play football. ”

Can they stop her? Not that no one has tried it. As early as six years old, Smith was repeatedly told by a local club that she could not compete in higher-age competitions. In elementary school, she once went home with her legs and black eyes. It turned out that because a boy didn't take her to play football, she had a fight with someone.

After Lombardy first came into contact with Smith, he kept paying attention to the winger and eventually brought her into the newly established Ontario Development Center, which is run by the Canadian Football Association and is part of the Canadian football development pathway.

Almost instantly, Milanovic laughed at this attempt to "picking the bones in the egg" from the performance of a 13-year-old child.

He said: "All of our coaches have little to do with her current situation."

"You can see it happening step by step," Lombardi added.

But you can also see the girl with bright eyes and dancing expectantly on the sidelines.

"I remember one before the game, and I left my phone in the room," Cabral said. "After lunch, I turned on my phone and found that there were about ten selfies of Smith. She was the only one in the photo, she looked funny and grimacing."

"For me, what impressed me the most was the joy and happiness that Smith brought every time he walked into the office," Cricorian said. "She has her eyes wide open, eager to learn, eager to make progress, eager to be the best person."