{"id":19225,"date":"2026-07-20T15:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T15:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19225"},"modified":"2026-07-20T15:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T15:13:08","slug":"melvine-malard-hungry-for-trophies-after-joining-chelsea-from-manchester-united-chelsea-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=19225","title":{"rendered":"Melvine Malard hungry for trophies after joining Chelsea from Manchester United | Chelsea Women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Chelsea have announced the signing of the France forward Melvine Malard from Manchester United on a four-year contract. The Guardian revealed last week that a deal was close for the the 26-year-old, who has left United after three seasons for about \u00a3850,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Malard had one year on her contract and United were keen to keep the forward. However, once it became clear Malard wanted a move United decided to sell, rather than lose a high-value highly rated player on a free next summer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"aab0c05a-ce4b-4db5-a54d-3e14a074fcdf\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-1oq85qr\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:2,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Women\u2019s transfer window summer 2026: all deals from world\u2019s top six leagues&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;aab0c05a-ce4b-4db5-a54d-3e14a074fcdf&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/ng-interactive\/2026\/jun\/08\/womens-transfer-window-summer-2026-all-deals-from-worlds-top-six-leagues&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:0,&quot;display&quot;:0,&quot;theme&quot;:2}}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It is believed United will reinvest the fee, which is a record sale for the club, into the squad, with the transfer window open until 3 September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">United have made one summer signing, the full-back Andrea Medina from Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, but more incomings are expected after the departures of Leah Galton, Hannah Blundell, Sienna Wareing, Millie Turner, Lisa Naalsund and Malard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Malard said: \u201cI\u2019m so happy because I have a plan for my life and my career, and Chelsea were a part of that plan \u2026 My objective is to become better every single day and to win trophies. I know Chelsea always have that as an objective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The France international played under Chelsea\u2019s head coach, Sonia Bompastor, at Lyonnes (formerly Lyon) and was recruited to their academy by Bompastor. \u201cI have known Sonia since I was 14 years old, so it is great to work with her again,\u201d Malard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">It is understood Chelsea have been tracking Malard for some time. They have lost a number of players across the forward line, with the club record goalscorer Sam Kerr and Guro Reiten departing for Gotham FC, Catarina Macario joining San Diego Wave and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd signing for Lyonnes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Malard is Chelsea\u2019s third signing of the summer, after the former Arsenal full-back Katie McCabe and the forward Manaka Matsukubo, who was with North Carolina Courage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Malard spent seven seasons at Lyonnes, winning four Champions Leagues, three league titles and two Coupes de France. Her first season with United was on loan.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-d9bay7\"><gu-island name=\"EmailSignUpWrapper\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"visible\" props=\"{&quot;index&quot;:10,&quot;listId&quot;:6020,&quot;identityName&quot;:&quot;moving-the-goalposts&quot;,&quot;category&quot;:&quot;article-based&quot;,&quot;description&quot;:&quot;No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Moving the Goalposts&quot;,&quot;frequency&quot;:&quot;Weekly&quot;,&quot;theme&quot;:&quot;sport&quot;,&quot;illustrationSquare&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/bd6558e38409404e6c45134ad863584bd5204287\/0_0_3000_3000\/500.jpg&quot;,&quot;exampleUrl&quot;:&quot;\/football\/series\/moving-the-goalposts\/latest&quot;,&quot;idApiUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/idapi.theguardian.com&quot;}\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-1ao0bwb\">\n<div class=\"dcr-12qa5gp\">\n<hr class=\"dcr-1cjdlyj\"\/>\n<aside aria-label=\"newsletter promotion\" class=\"dcr-11zfjs0\">\n<div class=\"dcr-pspq5\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1gx5ko4\">\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to <span>Moving the Goalposts<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/bd6558e38409404e6c45134ad863584bd5204287\/0_0_3000_3000\/500.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p><\/gu-island><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Last season she scored four goals in United\u2019s run to a first Champions League quarter-final and six times in 18 WSL games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><strong>Liverpool<\/strong> have signed the Japanese attacking midfielder Mao Itamura from Feyenoord. The 19-year-old, who won the Under-20 Women\u2019s Asian Cup in April, was the Eredivisie player of the year last season in the Netherlands. She scored eight times and provided six assists as Feyenoord qualified for European competition for the first time, their third-place finish earning a place in the Europa Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Itamura is Liverpool\u2019s fifth summer signing, after Vivien Endemann, Sara Agrez, Mari Ward and Khiara Keating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea have announced the signing of the France forward Melvine Malard from Manchester United on&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}