Arsenal Women have announced the signing of Australian international Caitlin Foord from Sydney FC. Foord’s rights were traded from Portland Thorns to Orlando Pride in the most recent NWSL draft picks but she won’t play for the NWSL club. Foord has played the last two games for her parent club Sydney, but announced her departure on Saturday.
— Caitlin Foord (@CaitlinFoord) January 18, 2020
News of Foord’s impending transfer to the Gunners broke earlier in the month, with Joe Montemurro later confirming his interest in the player to Arseblog News after the 4-0 win over Brighton.
Foord became the youngest Australian to play at a World Cup when she represented Australia at the 2011 Women’s World Cup at the age of 16. She will bolster Arsenal’s options, she can operate as a right or left winger or wing-back and as a centre-forward. She will wear the number 19 shirt.
Caitlin has 77 caps for her country and has also played for Perth Glory, Sky Blue FC as well as Japanese side Vegalta Sendai. Foord is the third Matilda to join the WSL in January after Sam Kerr signed for Chelsea and Hayley Ruso joined Everton on loan. Caitlin will not play for the Gunners until mid-February, after taking part in a pair of Olympic qualifying games for Australia. She is currently training with her international team ahead of those games.
Foord told the Sydney FC website, “This is an unbelievable opportunity which is impossible to turn down. Arsenal are one of the world’s biggest clubs and the challenge of playing in England at the highest level is going to provide me with the ultimate test at this stage of my career.”
Thank you for two wonderful seasons, @CaitlinFoord. #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/iXM0MjVQ9P
— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) January 8, 2020
Tim and Pippa will have a podcast for you shortly on Caitlin, both from the perspective of her international career and her two-year spell with Portland Thorns in the NWSL.
Welcome Caitlin! Good luck dominating the WSL!
Good to have such a versatile & dynamic player on board although by the time she is “up and running” the destination of the WSL title will likely have been decided.
For the present, I’d feel a lot happier to hear that Beats, Kat and Jordan are in the squad for this Sunday’s game.
Welcome Caitlin. Good to have the best Matilda in the league :).
For all commentators – Foord Roord link-up will be lovely.
I am with you, because reality is that most of our season can be decided in the next three games. We can’t win anything for certain, but we can lose basicly everything but Champions League. I am not that worried about Kat, because Katie has been good and Kat hasn’t played at all this season, so she won’t be in any sort of form anyway. But we really missed Beats against Chelsea and if she and Jordan will miss the next three games, our chances are much smaller.
Kat is (imho) along with Lisa one of the most underrated players in the squad. If it were possible to turn back the clock Kat’s speed and power down the left flank and Lisa down the right would have given Chelski a lot to think about. Even to have her on the bench on Sunday would be good and Lisa starting, a must.