Layla Drury Set to Sign Historic Pro Deal with Manchester United Women

Manchester United Women are about to rewrite another line of their record book, and the name at the centre of it is already familiar: Layla Drury.

At 17, the forward is set to become the youngest player ever to sign a professional contract with the club, a landmark moment for both the teenager and United’s women’s programme. She has already broken one record. Now she is about to claim another.

Drury burst into the senior picture in January, thrown into an FA Cup tie against Burnley and responding as if it were the most natural step in the world. She did not just make her debut in that 5-0 win. She scored in it, instantly becoming Manchester United Women’s youngest goalscorer.

That goal came at 16. The numbers since then underline how quickly United trust her. Still only 16 throughout last season, she made seven senior appearances in all competitions, including five substitute outings in the WSL. These were not ceremonial cameos. They were the first deliberate steps in a planned pathway.

The club’s intention is clear. It is understood United want Drury with the first team on a full‑time basis next season, embedding her properly in Marc Skinner’s squad rather than keeping her on the fringes. For a player who only turned 17 this year, that is a statement.

Her rise also carries international intrigue. Born in Wales, Drury has represented both Wales and England at youth level. In February she switched her allegiance to England, a move that reflects how highly she is regarded within the FA’s pathway and how competitive the tug-of-war for emerging talent has become.

Her January debut arrived at 16 years and 220 days, a detail that matters at a club obsessed with its own history. That appearance nudged her past a significant benchmark: the record previously held by Lauren James, set in 2018. To surpass a player of James’s calibre so early in her own career only sharpens the focus on what might come next.

Inside United, Drury’s progress is being held up as a vindication of the club’s academy strategy. The women’s set‑up has been under pressure to show it can do more than buy talent; it must produce it. Drury is the proof of concept, the local answer to a wider question about sustainability and identity in the women’s game.

United are understood to be determined to lean more heavily on their own youth system, both to give the team a clearer long-term core and to help the women’s operation stand on firmer financial ground. Developing players like Drury in-house, then watching them step seamlessly into senior football, is exactly the model they want.

While United prepare to tie down one of their brightest prospects, another WSL club has moved to add proven international quality from abroad.

London City Lionesses have confirmed the signing of Germany forward Nicole Anyomi on a four-year deal, after her contract with Eintracht Frankfurt came to an end. It is a significant commitment from the club and a clear signal of intent.

Anyomi arrives with serious pedigree: 60 goals in 130 games for Frankfurt and a place in the Germany squad that reached the Euro 2022 final against England at Wembley. For a side looking to climb the WSL ladder, this is the kind of attacking reinforcement that can change the feel of a dressing room.

Speaking to London City Lionesses’ media channels, Anyomi described the move as the fulfilment of a long-held ambition to play abroad and underlined how much the club’s project means to her. The length of the contract suggests the feeling is mutual.

On one side of the league, a teenager prepares to sign her first professional deal. On the other, an established international commits her prime years to a growing project. Between Layla Drury at Manchester United and Nicole Anyomi at London City Lionesses, the WSL’s future is being built at both ends of the age spectrum – and the next few seasons will show just how high that foundation can carry them.