Futbol Femenino Nacional (no Real Madrid) e Internacional

[unde]

El Lyon ficha a Giovanna Waksman, 16 años solamente. Scouting del bueno. Se ha hablado de esta jugadora en ocasiones en este foro. Los fichajes de jugadoras tan jóvenes siempre entrañan un riesgo, pero a priori parece un extraordinario fichaje... para dentro de 3-4 años.

Perdón por no ser muy activo en este tema, pero pregunto, no existen las mismas reglas de no poder fichar jugadores menores de 18 años como en el caso de Endrick?

[jaizkibel]

Está prohibido fichar menores de 18 años (art. 19 del Reglamento de la Fifa, pero hay excepciones.
Por ejemplo, si se mudan también los padres por razones ajenas al fútbol. Por ejemplo, si el Lyon busca un puesto de trabajo al padre o a la madre o a ambos y la familia se muda a Lyon.

[Stardust]

El Lyon ficha a Giovanna Waksman, 16 años solamente. Scouting del bueno. Se ha hablado de esta jugadora en ocasiones en este foro. Los fichajes de jugadoras tan jóvenes siempre entrañan un riesgo, pero a priori parece un extraordinario fichaje... para dentro de 3-4 años.

No hay mucho scouting ahí. Es la jugadora que más destacó de Brasil en la fase de grupos (una Brasil muy irregular) del pasado Mundial sub17 hasta lesionarse. Lo que tiene el Lyon (Kang) es dinero para tirar sin ninguna preocupación ya que no existe ninguna normativa económica de regulación.

Y para muestra, el dineral que deben haber invertido para que una familia deje su vida en Brasil y se traslade a Lyon con la incertidumbre de un contrato de solo 2 años por una chica de 16 años que lleva desde el mencionado Mundial sin jugar por una lesión de ligamento de la rodilla. Una apuesta muy arriesgada (para la familia) que debe salirles a cuenta por el pastizal que les habrá soltado Kang sin pestañear.

Para quien no la conozca, aquí la podéis ver un poco, con un doblete en la derrota de Brasil ante Italia.

[Tuiriz]

El club es el FC Badalona Women, así que entiendo que Michele Kang estará considerando otros club.

[jaizkibel]

Aquí te amplían esa información:

Mercury13 compra el FC Badalona Women de Liga F y nombra CEO a un ex del Olympique de Marsella

https://www.2playbook.com/clubes/mercur ... 3_102.html

[jaizkibel]

El Barcelona sigue fichando talento joven.

Y Maria Tikas habla de que están trabajando para los relevos de Irene Paredes y Mapi León.

Sólo le pido al destino que algún club inglés fiche cuanto antes a la holandesa Van Asten. Como desgraciadamente parece que el RM no está interesado, si al final se la lleva el Barcelona el disgusto que me voy a llevar va a ser tremendo.

[Stardust]

Completada la primera fase de la Copa de Asia, de donde saldrán los 6 equipos para el Mundial y 2 para los playoffs.

GRUPO A

7 pts - Corea del Sur
7 pts - Australia
3 pts - Filipinas
0 pts - Irán

AUS 1–0 PHI ..... KOR 3–0 IRN
PHI 0–3 KOR ..... IRN 0–4 AUS
IRN 0–2 PHI ..... AUS 3–3 KOR

GRUPO B

9 pts - China
6 pts - Corea del Norte
3 pts - Uzbekistán
0 pts - Bangladesh

PRK 3–0 UZB ..... CHN 2–0 BAN
BAN 0–5 PRK ..... UZB 0–3 CHN
BAN 0–4 UZB ..... PRK 1–2 CHN

GRUPO C

9 pts - Japón
6 pts - China Taipei
3 pts - Vietnam
0 pts - India

JPN 2–0 TPE ..... VIE 2–1 IND
TPE 1–0 VIE ..... IND 0–11 JPN
JPN 4–0 VIE ..... IND 1–3 TPE

CUARTOS DE FINAL

Corea del Sur vs Uzbekistán
Japón vs Filipinas

China vs China Taipei
Australia vs Corea del Norte

Máximas Goleadoras

4 goles
- Yu-Jong Myong (Corea del Norte)
- Alanna Kennedy (Australia)
- Kiko Seike (Japón)
- Riko Ueki (Japón)

3 goles
- Kyong-Yong Kim (Corea del Norte)
- Hinata Miyazawa (Japón)

[jaizkibel]

Otro video más de la holandesa Van Asten.

En esta ocasión, jugando, no de central sino de centrocapista. Sigo diciendo que esta jugadora es todo un talento con sólo 19 años, una jugadora absolutamente diferente. Sólo he sentido sensaciones parecidas a las que me genera Van Asten cuando ví el primer video de la noruega Gaupset hace ya tiempo cuando jugaba en el Brann.

En el post esta cuenta, que homenajea con frecuencia al Ajax, une el video de Van Asten con otro de Van de Velde. Van de Velde es la compañera de Van Asten en el centro de la defensa cuando esta última juega como central. Línea habitual de centales en el Ajax: Van de Velde + Van Asten.

En mi opinión, dentro de 4-5 años, la selección holandesa va a tener un nivel impresionante porque viene por abajo una generación de jóvenes promesas con una calidad altísima.

Hay que ver los videos preferiblemente en pantalla completa.

[jaizkibel]

Guro Reiten se marcha a los Estados Unidos. Está claro que su situación en el Chelsea cada día era un poco más comprometida, pero lo de irse a USA no me lo esperaba. Mucha suerte.

[jaizkibel]

Más labores de scouting con jugadoras jóvenes promesas.

En este caso os presento a Indiana dos Santos. 18 años. Interior, doble nacionalidad portuguesa y australiana, por lo que no ocuparía plaza de extranjera en clubes de la Unión Europea.

Juega en el Sydney australiano.

Aviso: ninguno de los nombres que personalmente apunto en este foro se hace pensando en dar ideas sobre jugadoras que podrían ser interesantes al RM. Eso me da bastante igual, se trata de otra cosa. Sólo he hecho una excepción a esta afirmación. El caso de la holandesa Van Asten. Es una oportunidad tan clara que escandaliza que la dejen pasar.

[jaizkibel]

Más jugadoras jóvenes promesas para clubes europeos de nivel: la japonesa Miharu Shinjo.

19 años, centrocampista pura, juega en la liga japonesa, concretamente en el Tokyo... y candidata con muchas papeletas a fichar por algún club inglés.

[jaizkibel]

Y la última que apunto hoy.

Quizá alguien recuerde a Lara Prasnikar, la jugadora eslovaca que triunfó en la Liga alemana, jugando en el Turbine Potsdam primero y Eintracht Frankfurt después.

Bueno, pues Tamara Morávková podría ser su sucesora. También eslovaca. Juega algo más retrasada que Prasnikar, no tan adelantada. Tiene 23 años y juega en el Slavia de Praga, equipo en el que es una de las líderes.

[jaizkibel]

Sorpresa sorprendente en la Liga holandesa que pone muy interesante la lucha por el título.

Personalmente, en la Liga holandesa me interesa sobre todo ver a las jugadoras jóvenes, promesas, que en pocos años serán jugadoras de referencia. Y hay muchas. Especialmente hay que estar pendientes de las canteras del PSV y del Ajax. Quizá no tanto en la cantera del Twente.

Ayer,

Feyenoord, 2
Twente, 0

Excelsior, 0
PSV, 6

Clasificación<.

1º. PSV, 38 ptos.
2º. Twente, 37 ptos.
3º. Feyenoord, 36 ptos.
4º. Ajax, 30 ptos. (2 partidos menos jugados)

[jaizkibel]

He estado leyendo esta tarde un artículo del periódico The New York Times sobre la Liga femenina inglesa (WSL) que me parece muy interesante. Aviso que es bastante largo. Lo copio y pego porque exige suscripción y si sólo dejo el enlace quizá alguno no lo pueda leer.
Está en inglés. Dejo la versión original. Si alguien tiene problemas siempre tiene a su disposición el traductor de Google.

[jaizkibel]

El artículo habla de la cada vez mayor presencia de jugadoras extranjeras en la Liga inglesa y el obstáculo que eso parece que es para las jugadoras de cantera, generalmente inglesas, de los clubes.
Parece que eso es un "problema" no sólo de la Liga española, pasa en muchos sitios.

[jaizkibel]

As the Women’s Super League continues to grow, academy players risk being left behind

Layla Drury twirls around, taking in the wreckage of her first-team debut for Manchester United in the FA Cup fourth-round match against Burnley. It is January, and the Burnley goalkeeper is splayed facedown on the grass, the fans are screaming, the scoreline reads 5-0 to United. At 16 years old and 220 days, Drury is now United Women’s youngest-ever debutante and goalscorer.

“She was ready,” head coach Marc Skinner said of the United academy product. Skinner used the same phrase one month later when 17-year-old academy graduate Jess Anderson made her debut in United’s 2-1 second leg Champions League quarter-final playoff victory against Atletico Madrid in February.

Yet the simplicity of those three words belie an increasingly fraught and complex challenge facing young players coming through WSL academies: breaking into the first team.


Manchester United’s Layla Drury made her debut for the club at 16 years old in the Women’s FA Cup

Before Drury’s WSL debut on February 15, only one player under 21 years old, goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel, featured in the league campaign. The permanent exit of academy graduate Keira Barry to Bay FC in January further ignited criticism of Skinner and United’s talent pathway, which has long been seen as the core tenet of the team’s identity. Barry was part of United’s 2022 Professional Game Academy (PGA) League-winning team.

Two senior figures within United, speaking under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, note the need for more talent to come through its ranks, particularly given the club’s historic track record in doing so.

Yet, United are far from the only WSL club wrestling with the need to bring through more young talent — and struggling to do so.

Last season, a record 86 players made their debut in the WSL, according to WSL Football. Yet just 15 per cent of those players (13) progressed through the academy system of the team with whom they made their debut.



This season, the number of WSL debuts for academy players has yet to hit double digits. And while more players under 21 are playing in the WSL this season than ever before, it is coinciding with the lowest-ever percentage of minutes played by English players.

The lack of minutes for England talent is in sharp contrast to other nations.

When England reached the semi-finals of the Under-19s Women’s European Championship in 2024, their squad was conspicuous for its lack of regular competitive top-flight experience compared to the other semi-finalists, the Netherlands, France, and eventual winners, Spain. Sixteen of France’s squad had played in a top-flight league the season prior, only four of England’s squad had done so.

The disparity led then-Football Association’s women’s technical director, Kay Cossington to declare “the pathway is more accessible, but talent needs opportunity. The pipeline is bursting. We now need to solve that next part of the jigsaw, which is to provide those meaningful minutes.”



Nearly two years later, Cossington’s words ring with alarming prescience. As the WSL’s international pedigree and financial heft have increased, it has established itself as one of the most attractive landing spots for elite women’s footballers, creating a multinational, cosmopolitan league that has greater competitive value, a wider global broadcast appeal and bigger sponsorship revenues.

It has also created an increasingly clogged academy system with no clear consensus on who or what is to blame.

The Athletic spoke to multiple people in the WSL, WSL2 and across Europe over the last three months to capture a snapshot of the ongoing challenges facing young players in English women’s academies.

No longer a schoolyard

“I told her to keep head down, keep working. Your time will come eventually.” Brian Sorensen pauses before releasing a slow exhale. “But how long can you do that for?”

It is February and the former Everton manager and current Aston Villa technical director is speaking to The Athletic about an England youth international who, despite her quality, could not break into his starting XI.

There were chances, he says, but the landscape that once saw the emergence of Chelsea’s Aggie Beever-Jones and Jess Park, then of Manchester City, has grown more merciless.

Composed of just 22 league games, the limited number of domestic games is also an obstacle, according to sources. No team that has qualified for the Champions League in the past two seasons has lost more than four matches.

Young players are more exposed. Errors are more costly. “In 10 games’ time, she could be OK,” Sorensen says. “But would I still have the backing high up afterwards? That’s what you don’t know.”


Brian Sorensen coached Everton from 2022 to 2026

While clubs such as Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion are hailed by academy sources in opposition clubs as being committed to bringing through young talent, there is also a sense that clubs safe from relegation yet unable to compete for Champions League places have the “luxury” of giving youngsters opportunities.

According to four WSL managers, three of whom work for teams in the WSL’s top six, a mounting pressure from decision-makers to earn results, whether to qualify for Champions League, tap into more lucrative revenue streams such as sponsorships or potential outside investment or procure job security, has deterred them from playing some young players.

Consequently, many clubs are turning towards buying finished or almost-finished players with senior experience, increasingly from Scandinavian or other European leagues where they are exposed to senior football earlier.

Multiple WSL coaches claim that early exposure makes players’ game intelligence and technical abilities sharper and makes the physiological jump to first-team football more seamless. Where academy products are jumping from three to four training sessions per week to a full-time set-up, increasing the risk of ligament injury (WSL clubs now screen young players before committing them to first-team football), young athletes exposed regularly to senior football earlier have more opportunity to adapt to top-flight football’s physical demands.



The most recent January transfer window underscored this new operational method. In January, United broke their club transfer record for 21-year-old Sweden international Ellen Wangerheim from Hammarby, while also signing her 23-year-old compatriot Hanna Lundkvist from San Diego Wave, both of whom already boasted over 150 senior appearances, and both played at Euro 2025.

As did fellow Swede Smilla Holmberg, 19, who joined Arsenal after racking up 96 appearances for Hammarby.

Likewise, Norway’s Signe Gaupset (20), who joined Tottenham Hotspur for a club-record fee, while fellow additions Hanna Wijk (22) and Matilda Nilden (21) had all made over 100 senior appearances upon arriving in north London.

Of the clubs to break their club transfer records in the past year, only Everton have done so for an England youth international when they signed Ruby Mace last summer from Leicester City for £250,000. (Everton have since broken that record fee to sign Slovenia midfielder Zara Kramžar from Roma on loan in January, with an obligation to make the move permanent in the summer.)


Everton signed Ruby Mace last summer from Leicester City for £250,000

“I said a couple of times to the young players we had in the building, ‘You’re trying to break through in the hardest league in the world, where every half year when the transfer window is open, more and more and more investment is going in’,” says Sorensen. “How do you get ahead of that? How do you get ahead of a senior international?”

A loan system is in ‘tatters’

While the League Cup and FA Cup are in theory good places to introduce young talent, many managers say that those matches have become important places for recently injured or fringe players, pushing academy players further down the pecking order.

The need for a “middle layer”, as Sorensen describes it, is becoming increasingly vital for young talent.

Previously, WSL clubs used the second-tier (now WSL2) as a development ground. However, the WSL’s expansion from 12 to 14 teams in 2026-27 has triggered increased investment in the WSL2.

Clubs that previously formed the fabric of a reliable loan system for WSL talent, such as Bristol City, Southampton, Crystal Palace or Birmingham City, are instead signing players of their own with top-flight or European experience.

Bristol City’s January signings included 23-year-old England international Katie Robinson from Aston Villa and 26-year-old defender Oliwia Woś from 1. FC Nürnberg, along with Arsenal’s Jessie Gale and Chelsea’s Vera Jones on loan.

Birmingham City made headlines when they broke the second-tier transfer record in January, spending £300,000 on 22-year-old attacking midfielder Wilma Leidhammar from Norrkoping, while also bringing in her 28-year-old team-mate Asato Miyagawa.


Birmingham City broke the second-tier transfer record in January when they signed Wilma Leidhammar for £300,000

“The WSL2 loan system is in tatters,” says a head coach at a top-four WSL club, a sentiment echoed by multiple agents and figures at other WSL clubs.

The underlying numbers don’t paint as stark an image. Clubs such as Ipswich Town (11th in the WSL2), Newcastle United (5th) and Nottingham Forest (7th) all brought players in on loan from the WSL, as well as the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). In fact, the number of players joining a WSL/WSL2 club on loan from a club in England reached 61 this season, up six from last season, according to data supplied by WSL Football. However, that data doesn’t distinguish the number of loans between WSL2 clubs themselves, nor the age of loanees or those loans cut short with players sent elsewhere in January.

One high-ranking official at a top-four WSL club voices a worry that loaning a young English player could also be used as a means for WSL2 clubs to meet homegrown quota requirements (a minimum of 15 homegrown players are required in a squad of 25 in the WSL2).

“We don’t exist solely as a destination for them to outsource their development,” counters one WSL2 club’s academy director.

While the third and fourth tiers of English football (Women’s National League) offer loan possibilities, the tiers are still predominantly amateur and fail to address the quality gap for development, one WSL sporting director says.

Scotland has become a popular destination, with Manchester City, Brighton and Aston Villa sending players to their top-flight in January.

However, the opportunity for quality first-team football beyond WSL borders, particularly in the leagues from which WSL sides are already poaching, is becoming more appealing, say two sporting directors. In fact, according to data from WSL Football, the number of international loans out of the WSL and WSL2 more than doubled from 13 in 2024/25 to 27 this season, and is up 10 from the 2023/24 season (17).

Many clubs are looking at United midfielder Emma Watson’s loan move to Liga MX Femenil club Tigres UANL as well as Arsenal’s Vivienne Lia and Brighton’s Melina Loeck’s moves to Hammarby and Arsenal’s Cecily Wellesley-Smith’s loan to Rosengard through eager academic lenses.


Manchester United loaned midfielder Emma Watson to Mexican club Tigres in January

However, any move abroad requires a player to be at least 18 years old, according to FIFA statutes. Additionally, moving abroad requires a willingness to move out of one’s comfort zone, embracing different styles of play, cultures, languages and facilities. According to three coaches at three different WSL clubs as well as two agents, English players can be apprehensive about doing so.

Sending players on loan internationally also incurs costs. “City, Arsenal, Chelsea, they can do it easily with a blink of an eye,” says Sorensen. “But in Everton, for example, we didn’t have the luxury. Everyone is trying to recruit a team that can be competitive this season, everyone is trying to play catch-up. So the long-term strategy gets put on hold. There’s no three- or five- or eight-year plan in motion.”

Sorensen is not expecting academy products to seamlessly waltz into starting XIs.

“But where do they play in the meantime?” he asks. “The reality is there’s a top international in front of you, maybe two. You have to try to play catch-up with them and do it fast.”

A disconnect in development

According to one coach, who was the head of academy at a WSL club, many of the challenges cited by head coaches and sporting directors could be avoided.

“The biggest problem with women’s football is that it’s built from the top down,” he says.

While women’s football’s first-teams have begun to incorporate more resources, the growth below is not proportionate, he says, describing the infrastructure of many WSL academy set-ups as “a minefield”.

Currently, most WSL clubs’ academies operate through a Professional Game Academy, a programme catering specifically for the development of under-16s and under-21s (14 to 20 year olds) launched ahead of the 2023-24 season by the FA that replaced the WSL Academy system. Funding is shared between the FA and clubs (clubs with Category 1 academies pay £150,000, with the FA matching the funds for a budget of £300,000, for example).

Forming the foundation of the PGA pathway are the Emerging Talent Centres (ETCs), development hubs for girls between the ages of eight and 16. Many PGAs run by WSL or Championship clubs now also operate their own ETCs to create a streamlined talent pipeline.

However, not all pipelines are clearly streamlined, three WSL academy sources claim.

The remits of PGA coaching staff and first-team staff do not often span ETC education. Additionally, low salaries for many ETC coaches provide little incentive for high-quality coaches to work lower down the system.

The result, say two sources, is a misalignment between what the youngest players are learning at ETCs and what the PGA programme and first-team staff expect them to be learning, leading to physical and tactical development voids.

“By the time they got to us, we were having to unravel half of the bad habits they’ve developed,” says the former WSL academy coach. “We had 18 months to turn it around, to get them ready for first-team football.”

At both WSL clubs the coach worked at, he says neither first-team manager paid regular visits to academy or ETC sessions.

“It’s easy to say, these players aren’t coming through or they aren’t ready, but which coaches have actually got the ability to go, ‘Right, you need this. I’m going to work on it with you’. But no one has come down from the top of the club to check on them.”



The implementation of clear education programmes and a playing philosophy for coaches at ETC level to help bridge the gap are recommended by sources, as is the appointment of staff specifically responsible for overseeing the pathway, such as Arsenal’s appointment of James Honeyman as head of player development in 2024.

Some challenges facing women’s academies and youth development are a function of time. Many WSL and WSL2 clubs neglected their academy programmes due to lack of funding over the last decade, prioritising instead investment into the first-team, marketing and growing attendances following the Lionesses’ first European Championship triumph in 2022. Academies, sources say, were a third- or fourth-ranked priority until recently. The disparate timescales for investment have led to competitive imbalances on and off the pitch as clubs play catch-up.

Three senior club and academy sources express some concerns that the imbalance could continue with the onset of WSL Football’s new two-year academy contracts for 16-year-olds available from next season.

According to WSL Football, the contracts are a step towards parity for young female players with their male counterparts. They also protect young players from being easily signed by larger clubs without adequate compensation while also encouraging clubs to invest in their academies. Previously, clubs were not permitted to contract 16-year-olds, often leading academies to lose promising talent for paltry remuneration.

While contracts are capped to ensure richer clubs do not out-price smaller clubs for young talent, the contracts (which, according to sources are around £16,000) are funded by clubs. Critics say clubs operating with limited academy budgets could continue to lose out to clubs with greater resources.


Arsenal’s pursuit of Chloe Kelly and Olivia Smith may have come at the cost of promoting current academy players

Yet, two senior WSL club figures say clubs must accept that the price to compete is rising. Clubs who can afford to invest in young talent should not be punished, they say, particularly as the transfer market becomes more inflated.

Sorensen adds that the emotional value of academy investment should not be understated. Homegrown talent can nurture connection with fanbases while also showcasing a clear pathway during recruitment meetings.

Even so, a senior WSL figure at a top-four club believes fans and players themselves must accept that not every academy product can and will break into the first team. Arsenal’s signings of Olivia Smith and Chloe Kelly in the summer led to the permanent departure of highly-rated academy product Freya Godfrey to London City Lionesses. The 20-year-old has since earned a call-up to Sarina Wiegman’s senior England squad.

On the one hand, the source says, Arsenal’s pursuit of Smith and Kelly would not have allowed Godfrey such great access to senior football. On the other is the question of whether Godfrey was more ready than the club believed.

“The environment you’re trying to create in women’s football is inclusiveness,” says the senior figure. “But women’s football also wanted the money, the record transfer fees. The professional game is getting quicker, faster, stronger. Managers are getting sacked. So the game from 15 to 21 years old is becoming ruthless. It has to.”

By Megan Feringa
Women's Football Writer