Brighton Girls have signed Fran Kirby on a free switch following the expiry of her contract with Chelsea.
The 31-year-old England worldwide leaves Chelsea as their all-time high scorer, having scored 115 targets in 205 appearances since becoming a member of from Studying in 2015.
Kirby gained 14 trophies throughout a embellished nine-year spell in west London, together with seven Girls’s Tremendous League titles, 5 FA Cups and two League Cups.
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Kirby scored in his final sport for Chelsea towards Manchester United
She can also be a two-time winner of the PFA Girls’s Participant of the 12 months and the Soccer Writers Girls’s Awards, and has made 70 appearances for England, scoring 19 targets and serving to them win Euro 2022.
Kirby admits she would “love” to participate in subsequent 12 months’s European Championships, however her determination to maneuver to Brighton was not primarily based on these ambitions.
Brighton have but to disclose the size of Kirby’s contract.
On the press convention, she mentioned: “I want to go to the following Euro, however I’ll by no means base my determination on the longer term.
“For me, it is what’s proper for me proper now and I really feel like I’ll get the perfect out of myself. Being near house and being at a membership that desires to push the ladies’s sport is what I needed to do.
“For me, once I really feel valued within the setting, I do know I’ll convey out the perfect in myself.
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Kirby explains the enjoyment of scoring in his final sport for Chelsea and what it means to depart on a excessive
“After I spoke to Brighton, they spoke extremely of me as a participant and as an individual. To me, feeling appreciated is likely one of the most essential issues about being a footballer and I felt that as quickly as I spoke to them on the cellphone and acquired to know the folks across the constructing.
“Perhaps that was my important motive, however in fact I would love to do my finest to participate in one other Euro and assist the Lionesses win it once more.”
Kirby additionally revealed that she needed to remain within the WSL after leaving Chelsea, which is why she “could not flip down” Brighton.
Kirby helped the Lionesses to Euro 2022 glory
She mentioned: “I needed to go someplace the place I might keep my requirements and assist take these requirements to a different membership.
“I needed to remain on this league as a result of I nonetheless wish to compete week in week out and so long as I might help the group progress, that is what I wish to do.
“After I spoke to Brighton and so they advised me how the proprietor was behind the ladies’s sport, how a lot they needed to put money into it and take it ahead, and seeing the alternatives right here, it was a very thrilling alternative for me and I felt I actually could not quit.”
Zoe Johnson, Brighton’s head of girls’s and ladies’ soccer, mentioned: “We’re delighted to welcome Fran to the membership.
“She arrived as certainly one of England’s most embellished footballers of all time, having performed a significant function in Chelsea’s current dominance and on the worldwide stage, that includes in England’s victory at Euro 2022.
“Her expertise on the sphere might be simply as essential off it, and we now have little doubt that she is going to assist us take a big step towards our long-term targets.”
