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Manchester United Women’s captain Katie Zelem is set to leave the club after the expiration of her contract this summer.
It continues the trend of what has been a difficult week for the women’s team as news broke yesterday that Mary Earps had rejected a new deal and she is reportedly on her way to Paris Saint-Germain.
Adding to the problems, United have lost even more experience as Spanish forward Lucia Garcia has also left the FA Cup winners.
The official Manchester United Women’s X account announced the sad news that Zelem would not be remaining at the club.
From our inception, to our first major trophy and everything in-between.
She’s been with us through it all.
Today we bid farewell to a legend.@KatieZelem, she’s one of our own ❤️#MUWomen
— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) June 27, 2024
The 28 year old began her career at Manchester United’s academy at the age of eight but had to leave in 2013 as the team had no senior side for her to move up to.
She would go on to play with Liverpool and Juventus, before re-joining United when they finally set up a senior side again in 2018.
Zelem captained the side to promotion to the Women’s Super League in her debut campaign and has been an instrumental part of the side ever since.
Other strings to her bow are being a major part of the team that finished second in the 2022-23 season and becoming the first woman to lift a major trophy for Manchester United when they won the FA Cup last month at Wembley, after a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
Zelem leaves United having played 161 times for the Red Devils in six years, scoring 32 goals from midfield.
The departure of the captain will leave a gaping hole in the Women’s side and provide another headache for Marc Skinner to deal with as he aims to lead his team to Champions League qualification next year.
New owners INEOS have already faced substantial criticism over their attitude to the women’s team as Sir Jim Ratcliffe claimed in an interview that they haven’t gone into much detail over what investment in the team will be like, as they are focusing on the men’s side as of now.
In addition, the embarrassing news that the male team will have priority access to new Carrington sports facilities will do little to inspire confidence in what INEOS plan to do to improve the women’s team.
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