The Women’s Super League season begins on Friday and after a busy summer transfer window, there are a few new faces to get to know.
At the recent WSL media day, The Athletic took the opportunity to meet a few of them and here we bring you seven to look out for as the new season kicks off.
Arsenal's Creative Spark
Kafaji is already a player who has made an impression on English audiences. She impressed in the Champions League group stage against Chelsea for BK Hacken last season while her cameo for Sweden against England in July in the Nations League posed the greatest threat to their clean sheet.
The 21-year-old attacking midfielder was one of only three summer signings for Arsenal and has already caught the eye with her wide variety of finishing and flair on the field. Expect quite a few WSL players to see the ball flicked over their heads this season.
“Ronaldinho has been my inspiration since I was younger and that’s who I’m trying to play like,” Kafaji said at the WSL media day. “I want to be creative, have fun on the pitch, try to score and create chances.”
“She’s a proper baller,” Jonas Eidevall said. “The things she can do with a ball would probably break the leg of another player trying it. She can open up small spaces and she can put balls in with exact precision. We needed that.”
Leicester's New Striker
New managers often bring former players with them — and Amandine Miquel has been no exception.
Miquel has recruited two young Reims players for her Leicester squad this year, with 21-year-old Mouchon looking set to make an immediate impact. The striker broke into the Reims senior side for the first time last season, and her nine goals in 22 league appearances helped them to a fourth-placed finish, their highest since returning to France’s top flight.
“She is a ‘fake slow’,” said Miquel, who left Reims for Leicester this summer after seven years in charge. “When she starts running, even though it is not very fast, you feel like no one can take the ball off her, so that’s good for us.”
Mouchon is adept at holding up the ball but her ability to carry it and take on players is what suits the transitional style Miquel is looking to introduce at Leicester. She had the second most successful take-ons for any under-21 player in the French top flight last year and has a stylistic resemblance to Chelsea striker Mayra Ramirez.
Everton's Promising Talent
Everton manager Brian Sorensen admitted at the WSL media day that the club had been forced to slim down their staff and sell players to make sure the “money was on the pitch”. Gabarro is one of six players brought in by Everton over the summer as part of that reshuffle with Sorensen describing the 21-year-old as a direct replacement for Hanna Bennison, the last wonderkid Everton signed, who was sold to Juventus over the summer.
“She’s technically very gifted,” Sorensen said. “She moves extremely well too. When you look at her (physical) numbers, they are the best we have in our squad. She’s going to be the next big one down the road, I’m certain of that, but there’s still a lot of learning because of her age.”
Gabarro scored goals for fun at youth level, winning the Golden Boot at the 2022 Under-20 World Cup for champions Spain. She can play across the forward line but it is her late runs into the box, evading defenders, which most catch the eye.
She scored six goals (see her shot map below) and got two assists last season but her underlying numbers were also promising. Only two players aged under 21 in Liga F last season — Esmee Brugts (12.3) and Salma Paralluelo (15.5) of Barcelona — recorded a higher number of expected goals plus expected assists (npxG + xA) than Gabarro (11.8).
Liverpool's Ball-Striking Wonderkid
Some managers like to play down their expectations of new signings — but Matt Beard is not one of them.
“Olivia Smith is probably going to be one of the best footballers in the world,” he said at the WSL media day last week. “I’ve never seen someone strike the ball like her — left foot, right foot. You stand watching her in training and think, ‘Did she just do that?’”
Signed for a club-record fee of €250,000 (£212,000), Smith was pursued by several clubs after an outstanding first season at Sporting Lisbon in which she scored 16 goals in 28 appearances, but she has looked set for superstardom for a long time.
In 2019, she became the youngest player ever to start for the Canada national team when she came on against Brazil at the age of 15 years and 94 days. Caps have been patchy since — she has made 10 appearances in total — but she was the youngest member of the 2023 World Cup squad.
The power of her ball-striking is certainly eye-catching and she is supremely composed in front of goal. Her career has been carefully plotted, with the WSL the most competitive environment she will have played in yet. But if it goes anything like the rest of her experiences, she should thrive.
Manchester United's Olympic Star
Awujo, 20, may be Canadian but signing for Manchester United is a homecoming.
“I’ve been a Man United fan since I was a little kid,” she told club media. “Growing up, watching the Premier League and football and coming to England to see family, those played a big part of my decision (to join).”
The central midfielder was a bright spark during a tough Olympic tournament for Canada and United fans will hope she can breathe life into their own midfield which is in flux with long-term captain Katie Zelem departing for Angel City over the summer.
Awujo is good at receiving with her back to goal before turning to open up space ahead of her and looks physically ready to cope with the WSL, even though it will be her first experience of professional football, having joined United from the United States collegiate system.
Awujo is no slouch when it comes to running either: she helped set records in the 4x100m and 4x400m when she was in high school.
Tottenham's Athletic Wonder
Morris is only 21 but has racked up more than 100 senior appearances at Southampton. An academy product, the England full-back joined Tottenham this summer on a three-year deal. Citing Lucy Bronze and Kyle Walker as her idols, Morris has impressed staff at Tottenham with her physicality.
“I’ve never seen a player with that physical data,” said Tottenham head coach Robert Vilahamn at the WSL media day. “She can sprint double the metres of anyone else in the league. When you get everything together with how we play and how she can do that, nobody’s going to stop her.”
Her team-mate Matilda Vinberg agreed. “Ella Morris is going to shock everybody. I’ve never seen anyone so strong in everything. She’s smashing every test. She’s never tired. And we’re asking, ‘What are you eating? Can I get the same?’”
Chelsea's Ready-Made Midfielder
Chelsea signed midfielder Wieke Kaptein last summer, so the 19-year-old is not technically a new signing, but they sent her back to Twente on loan for the year and now she has finally arrived at Cobham and looks ready to contribute.
Kaptein has been one of the outstanding performers in pre-season, aided by the fact that an injury to Erin Cuthbert has meant that there have been more midfield minutes available — a situation only heightened by the ACL injury suffered by Sophie Ingle. Despite her youth, Kaptein looks comfortable in senior football, emphasised by breaking into the Netherlands team.
The midfielder is equally comfortable defending her area or pushing forward into the opposition’s and looks well-suited to the varied demands of new manager Sonia Bompastor’s double pivot. With the departures of Melanie Leupolz and Jelena Cankovic, there are minutes up for grabs and Kaptein looks ready to grab them with both hands.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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