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The trip from London to San Jose spans more than 5,000 miles, but for the Bay Area’s top homegrown soccer talent, Naomi Girma, the more meaningful distance is harder to measure.

It’s the space between who she was the last time she played in her hometown and who she has become in the years since.

“Playing with the national team in the Bay always just feels surreal,” Girma said.

USWNT coach Emma Hayes has called Girma, 25, the best defender she’s ever seen. Girma became the first woman to command a transfer fee of at least $1 million when she signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with Chelsea FC in January 2025. 

Today, she’s a defensive anchor whose game has matured beyond the version that once dominated college soccer at Stanford, just a 25-mile drive up 101 from her hometown. 

With 52 caps, Girma is a USWNT mainstay. The rest of the world has seen her up close, but since her last match in San Jose, in July 2023, her community has been kept waiting.

Girma missed out on the team’s most recent PayPal Park appearance versus Brazil in April 2025 after suffering a calf injury earlier in the year.

A homecoming is overdue. It took more than 11 hours of travel, but for Girma, the USWNT’s first of a series of three 2026 matches against Japan is a true home game. The pitch is familiar. The crowd, an expected sellout, will be too. 

“Seeing people who were there when I was just playing club soccer for fun … it’s like, wow, we’ve all made it this far,” she told reporters from her London home last week before making the transatlantic trek. 

She laughed when asked how many family and friends would be in the stands — a number large enough to become a logistical puzzle, even if it’s her mother who handles ticket requests. The USWNT has leaned into the celebration of Girma’s homecoming, creating a dedicated ticket link for the Bay Area’s Habesha community, a nod to Girma’s roots as the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants. 

Girma’s own army of fans will make the day special. But the venue itself carries its own weight. 

PayPal Park was the stadium where Girma and her Stanford teammates hoisted the Cardinal’s third-ever national championship trophy in 2019 after defeating North Carolina in a penalty shootout. At the time, Girma was a rising sophomore and the Pac-12 defender of the year in head coach Paul Ratcliffe’s dynasty of a program.

Before her illustrious career in Palo Alto, there were youth clubs across the South Bay, high school games at Pioneer, and an exponential climb through one of the country’s most fertile soccer pipelines. 

Ratcliffe, now in his 24th season leading Stanford, has coached some of the biggest names in U.S. soccer, including Sophia Wilson, Catarina Macario, and Kiki Pickett, who were all part of the 2019 title team. He said he knew from the minute Girma set foot on campus that she was next in a long line of local stars. 

“[The Bay Area] has always been a hotbed, and now with a pro team here, that helps as well. It’s incredible that the [USWNT] comes to play big games here in San Jose,” Ratcliffe said. “There’s no doubt that the Bay Area will always be a top area for developing women’s soccer and celebrating high-level soccer.”

“I think it’s grown so much,” Girma said, describing the Bay Area as one of the top soccer markets in the nation. “College soccer has been great here, and then it just made sense to have a pro team there too. It’s a great pipeline.”

Still, her career reflects a lingering reality. For all the Bay Area’s developmental strength, the highest levels of the sport remain global. While Bay FC had to look abroad to accelerate its progress ahead of Year 3, Girma had to leave the NWSL to fully test herself. 

Girma was selected first overall in the 2022 NWSL Draft and played two seasons with the San Diego Wave — earning defender of the year in both campaigns. Her move to Chelsea dropped her into a new version of the sport: the pace faster, the expectations sharper, the demand for adaptation constant. 

“It can feel uncomfortable at times: different league, different competitions, different training environment,” Girma said. “It has been really good in testing me and stretching how much I can grow.” 

That discomfort has translated into refinement. Her game hasn’t changed so much as tightened. And the qualities that once made her a standout in the Bay now make her essential. 

Those gains have come with a personal adjustment too. For the first time, Girma is living away from California, building a routine and a support system from scratch. The transition has forced a kind of independence that mirrors what’s happening on the field. 

She’s been home to San Jose twice since her move to London — trips to see family during breaks in summer and winter, stopping by Stanford to train while she’s in town. 

This trip — shorter, for business — is different.