Tottenham Women have finalised the transfer of French international defender, Alice Sombath, from OL Lyon with a club-record deal.
The 22-year-old defender will join Tottenham Hotspur Women for an undisclosed transfer fee that is rumoured to go beyond the previous club record of approximately £375,000, the fee that was paid to win the services of Signe Gaupset last year.
Sombath comes to the WSL after having spent five consecutive and successful seasons at Olympique Lyonnais.
She made 102 appearances for the French team, won five French Premiere Ligue titles and one UEFA Women's Champions League trophy in the 2021-22 season with them too.
Besides Sombath, Spurs are looking quite active in this summer transfer window so far as they have been rebuilding the team with five other new signings already and are planning to keep working on building the team in a way that keeps them in the race with their rivals ahead of a challenging new season.
Why Alice Sombath Is A Perfect Fit For Tottenham Women
Sombath represents a perfect fit for Martin Ho's plan to create a young and powerful Spurs team.
The French international started her footballing journey at Paris FC’s academy before moving to PSG’s academy and then to Olympique Lyonnais in 2020.
Sombath’s journey at Lyon helped her in building the needed experience both on a local and continental level, while developing a lot in terms of defensive maturity, duels, and build-up from the back.
She can play both as a centre-back and as a right-back and is expected to guarantee more defensive compactness to Tottenham, as she is known for being solid and aggressive in defensive and aerial duels, in addition to being tactically mature enough to make well-timed anticipations and interceptions whenever needed.
Her defensive contribution will therefore represent a valuable addition to Spurs especially when facing the powerful top teams.
Tottenham Women Continue Their Squad Rebuild
Sombath is actually the sixth new signing for Spurs during this transfer window, as they have already secured the signings of Shekiera Martinez, Kirsty Hanson, Victoria Pelova, Caitlin Dijkstra, and Selma Panengstuen.
Following a fifth-spot finish in the WSL last season, the objective of this coming season is to keep challenging for the top spots and ultimately end the season at a spot that qualifies them to the UWCL.
Sombath’s extensive experience at the top level will surely help Tottenham in becoming more difficult to beat and therefore win more points in the WSL on the long-run to eventually reach their objectives.
With Tottenham’s valuable new signings, it is predictable to see this team challenging for the top spots until the end this season, especially if the coaching staff succeed in exploiting these players’ traits well enough and know how to benefit from their abilities using the most suitable tactics.
