Fran Kirby: Brighton Women sign former Chelsea forward on free transfer | Football News


Brighton Ladies have signed Fran Kirby on a distant switch next the expiry of her Chelsea guarantee.

The 31-year-old England global departs Chelsea as their all-time important scorer having netted 115 objectives in 205 appearances since her arrival from Studying in 2015.

Kirby gained 14 trophies right through a embellished nine-year charm in west London together with seven Ladies’s Tremendous League titles, 5 FA Cups and two League Cups.

Kirby scored on her utmost look for Chelsea in opposition to Manchester United

She could also be a two-time winner of the PFA Ladies’s Participant of the Week and Soccer Writers’ Ladies’s awards and has gained 70 caps for England, scoring 19 objectives and serving to them win the Euros in 2022.

Kirby admits she would “love” to be concerned at later yr’s Eu Championships however her determination to progress to Brighton was once now not according to that ambition.

Brighton have not begun to expose the field of Kirby’s guarantee.

She informed a press convention: “I’d like to journey to every other Euros however I can by no means bottom my determination at the while.

“For me it’s what’s right for me now and where I feel like I’m going to get the best out of myself. Being close to home and being at a club that wants to push the women’s game is something I wanted to do.

“For me if I think valued in an climate upcoming I do know I’m getting to get the most productive out of myself.

Kirby explains the enjoyment to get a purpose on her ultimate look for Chelsea and what it way to reduce on a successful prime

“When I spoke to Brighton they were so complimentary of me as a player and as a person. For me, feeling valued is one of the most important things as a footballer and I felt that as soon as I spoke to them on the phone and got to know the people around the building.

“That was once most certainly my primary explanation why at the back of it however after all I’d find irresistible to do the whole lot I will to be fascinated by every other Euros and support the Lionesses win it once more.”

Kirby also revealed she wanted to remain in the WSL following her Chelsea exit and therefore she “couldn’t flip indisposed” Brighton.

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Kirby helped the Lionesses to Euro 2022 glory

She stated: “I wanted to go somewhere where I could keep my standards up and help bring those standards into another club.

“I sought after to stick on this league as a result of I nonetheless wish to be competing moment in and moment out and so long as I will support a staff walk upcoming that’s what I wish to do.

“When I spoke to Brighton and they told me how the owner was behind the women’s game, how much they wanted to invest in it and push it forwards and seeing the facilities here, for me it was a really exciting opportunity and one that I felt I couldn’t really turn down.”

Zoe Johnson, Brighton’s managing director of girls’s and ladies’ soccer, stated: “We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Fran to the club.

“She arrives as one of the embellished English footballers of all past, enjoying an integral position in Chelsea’s fresh dominance, in addition to at the global level having been part of England’s Euro 2022 win.

“Her experience on the pitch will be just as important off it and we have no doubt that she will help us take a significant step towards our long-term targets.”

Maia Bouchier: England Women opener finds her purpose with maiden professional century | Cricket News


Previous to Sunday, Maia Bouchier had now not scored a century since enjoying age-group cricket. In opposition to Unused Zealand in Worcester although, the England opener guided her crew to a game and order victory along with her maiden skilled ton.

Chasing 142 to overcome the White Ferns, Bouchier adopted up her 67 within the nine-wicket win over the vacationers at Chester-Le-Boulevard closing Wednesday by way of eminent find out how to backup her facet house with greater than 1/2 in their allocated 50 overs to extra.

Heading into this order, the 25-year-old right-hander had now not controlled to succeed in the half-century mark since her 2d ODI innings in opposition to Sri Lanka in September closing yr, however she credited the paintings she has been doing as key to permitting her to display on this order.

“I’ve struggled to understand where the purpose of my game is and what I give the team,” Bouchier stated later her match-winning ton.

“Personally, I’m an overly other cricketer and going into this crew I’ve learnt how one can pluck at the philosophy of inspiring the then year and being competitive, however in my very own person manner.

“That’s been tremendous impressive with the coaches and workforce and my team-mates pushing me to hold enjoying the best way I’ve been enjoying.

“I struggled a little bit in the Pakistan series, but I was hoping I’d come into this series with a bit more confidence and playing to my strengths, and I try to do that as much as possible.”

Maia Bouchier strike the 2 runs had to assemble her first skilled profession century and declare the one-day world order for England in opposition to Unused Zealand.

Boucher’s unbeaten 100 got here off simply 88 balls as neatly with a crash fee of over 113 later cracking 17 all over her innings, having taken simply 50 balls to succeed in 67 within the first game of the order.

Former England males’s Check batter and Sky Sports activities Cricket commentator Mark Butcher was once stuffed with honour for the best way the she went about compiling her general, with Unused Zealand’s bowlers having negligible solution to her array of photographs.

“Maia Bouchier has shown everybody her talent, the skill, the range of strokeplay, her timing – all of the attributes that make her an extremely exciting prospect for this England women’s team,” Butcher stated.

“For her first hundred as a professional to be for England in a one-day international is quite something – a moment she will remember forever.

“She’s a pervasive member of the England crew and she or he has come of past over the route of those two one-day internationals in opposition to Unused Zealand. She has performed rather magnificently.

“The thought, or the doubt perhaps, as to whether or not she was capable of going on to make really big scores has been dispelled.”

Despite the fact that the order is now wrapped up, England nonetheless have the 3rd and ultimate ODI to return in Bristol on Wednesday, July 1, live to tell the tale Sky Sports activities Cricket, ahead of the IT20 leg of Unused Zealand’s excursion will get underneath manner.

The primary center of attention for the crew this yr is also at the Girls’s T20 International Cup in Bangladesh in October, however Bouchier is raring to hold bettering within the longer white-ball structure as neatly and has, up to now, unmistakable the ones objectives come to fruition within the first two fits in opposition to Unused Zealand.

Highlights from England’s eight-wicket win in opposition to Unused Zealand in the second one ODI in Worcester.

“It will give me so much confidence going into ODI cricket,” Bouchier stated. “I’ve worked behind the scenes on my 50-over game and coming into this series I was hoping to get that opportunity to stay and play those full amount of overs.

“It’s such an impressive a part of batting, taking your presen and realising you will have extra presen than you suppose – particularly in 50-over cricket.

“That’s something I’ve been working really hard to make sure I get to, so I’m just super-proud of myself.”

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Reading Women confirm withdrawal from Championship next season and will play in fifth tier | Football News


Studying have showed their withdrawal from the Barclays Ladies’s Championship upcoming season and they’ll play games at Tier 5 of the ladies’s pyramid rather.

The membership – who had been a part of the Ladies’s Tremendous League within the 2022/23 season – mentioned in a remark they’d have wanted an extra possession money injection to compete at Championship stage.

The remark learn: “Club personnel, with support from The FA, have exhaustively explored every option, including external funding and new investment opportunities for Reading FC Women, which would allow the team to maintain their Barclays Women’s Championship status – with dialogue with various parties taking place.

“In spite of highest efforts, the complexities round isolated possession have intended running Studying FC Ladies below a isolated investment type has no longer been conceivable.

“The membership perceive the demotion to Tier 5 will come as a abundance unhappiness for all attached with the membership. This resolution, alternatively, does grant the membership with the chance to proceed to perform a ladies’s soccer area.

“All departments within the club have seen costs cut considerably in recent years. Whilst the club recognises and encourages the huge rise in popularity and commercialisation of the women’s game, it unfortunately does not have guarantees of the required finances to increase investment into Reading FC Women.”

Because of Studying’s demotion, the Championship could have simply 11 groups within the league upcoming season, with just one relegation playground. The second one tier intends to go back to twelve golf equipment and two relegation parks within the 2025/26 season.

The FA showed it had licensed Studying’s utility to re-apply to the ladies’s soccer pyramid within the 5th tier.

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Studying had been within the Ladies’s Tremendous League within the 2022/23 season

Ladies’s Tremendous League and Championship board chair Morning time Airey mentioned: “We are very disappointed that Reading FC Women have decided to withdraw from the Barclays Women’s Championship. We have been working closely with the club throughout the season and have made every effort to find a solution and to prevent this outcome.

“We’re deeply saddened by means of the have an effect on this may have at the Studying FC Ladies avid gamers, body of workers and fanatics, as they’ve all performed a key position in ladies’s soccer and inside their wider folk.

“t was also very important to us to find a way to ensure that Reading FC Women could continue to participate in the women’s football pyramid next season. Our priority now is to focus on supporting the current players and staff members at the club, including the professional game academy, to ensure that they have every opportunity to continue to participate in the women’s game.”