Olivia Smith: from taekwondo and family stats to a record £1m Arsenal move

Olivia Smith, 22, became the first £1m women's footballer when Arsenal signed her from Liverpool last year, she told BBC Sport in an interview published on 26 August 2026. The forward has since been recognised off the pitch as well, winning the PFA Women's Young Player of the Year award as the first non-English recipient for a second consecutive year.

Smith's pathway included an earlier club-record move to Liverpool for £210,000 one season before her transfer to Arsenal and a Canada debut at the age of 15. She was also the first woman to score for Liverpool at Anfield in a Women's Super League match in October 2025 and scored against Corinthians in this year's Women's Champions Cup final.

Smith described a multicultural upbringing in Whitby and around Toronto and credited her parents for supporting her development. "My parents have made a lot of sacrifices taking me to all these places and moving every couple of years," Smith told BBC Sport. "My dad's Jamaican, my mom's Chilean and Peruvian. There's so much football culture within those."

She recounted how other sports helped her cope with bullying and build physical skills relevant to football. "I did taekwondo as a kid. I was getting bullied in school so it was more of a defensive mechanism kind of thing," Smith said. "I did gymnastics too. That really helps with my agility. I find that, for my stature, I'm quite flexible as well, which really helps injury prevention."

Smith also credited taekwondo with developing discipline and aspects of her technique. "Taekwondo really helped with my discipline and arguably my shooting ability in terms of its speed," she said. "I think mainly it was just to keep me active, out of trouble, and it was just for fun. Thankfully it contributed to my footballing career."

Her father, Sean, played an active role in tracking her progress by filming matches and keeping statistics. "That is his favourite thing in the world to do. When I was younger, he would literally film all my games," Smith said. "After games, we would go back and watch everything, see what I could have done better and what I did well. He kept a diary of the goals that I scored, what minute it was in and things like that. He still has it to this day. He loves it!" Smith also enjoys cooking and watching television, with Law and Order: SVU a current favourite, and she says she is "dying to get a puppy".

Smith left home as a teenager to pursue her career, moving to Michigan at 15 on her own and accepting the personal cost of frequent relocations. "Moving around a lot, you're sacrificing relationships because you make good friends in one place, then you have to move," she said. "That makes it quite tough, especially when you're young. I struggled a lot with that. I had to leave to get training elsewhere. It helped me get used to what was to come, so I think it was a very important sacrifice in my journey."

For the first time in her career Smith is about to begin a second season at the same club, having settled into life at Arsenal. "When I stepped into the building for my second pre-season it just felt surreal. It feels like home. It feels like Arsenal's the place that's meant to be," she said. She reiterated longstanding personal goals she recorded as a child: "I had a journal with everything in it that I wanted to accomplish and what I wanted to do: I want to win the Ballon d'Or. I want to win the World Cup," and added, "I want to win trophies with [Arsenal]. I've had this mentality since I was young. It is what has driven me this far."