Layla Drury Set to Make History as Youngest Manchester United Women’s Player

Layla Drury, the teenager who tore up Manchester United Women’s record books before she could even sit her A-levels, is about to make history again.

At just 17, the forward is set to become the youngest player ever to sign a professional contract with the club’s women’s team, a landmark moment for both player and academy. United have moved quickly to tie down a talent they believe can grow into a cornerstone of their future – and they plan to have her with the first team full-time next season.

This is not a deal built on potential alone. Drury has already left her mark on the senior stage.

In January, still only 16, she stepped out for her debut in an FA Cup tie against Burnley. She didn’t just taste the occasion; she seized it. United won 5-0, and Drury scored, becoming the club’s youngest ever goalscorer in the process. The appearance itself was historic: 16 years and 220 days, a new club record that pushed Lauren James’s 2018 benchmark into the past.

Those weren’t token minutes, either. Across all competitions last season, Drury made seven senior appearances, five of them off the bench in the WSL. Each outing underlined why United’s staff rate her so highly: direct, brave, and unafraid of the stage.

Her rise also carries an international subplot. Born in Wales, Drury represented both Wales and England at youth level before switching her allegiance to England in February. That decision only sharpened the spotlight around her, adding another layer of intrigue to a career that is accelerating fast.

Inside United, her progress is being held up as a model of what the women’s academy can and should be. The club are determined to grow more of their own, to build a pathway that makes the women’s side sustainable rather than reliant on constant recruitment from elsewhere. Drury, the first player to sign professional terms before her 18th birthday, is the clearest sign yet that the pipeline is working.

Her story is one of records and firsts. But for United, the real appeal is what comes next: a full season embedded in the first-team environment, training and competing every day at the highest domestic level. If the last year is any guide, she will not be content just to make up the numbers.

While United lock in one of their brightest prospects, another WSL club has made a statement of its own.

London City Lionesses have confirmed the signing of Germany forward Nicole Anyomi on a four-year deal after the end of her contract at Eintracht Frankfurt. It is an ambitious move for the club and a significant shift for the player.

Anyomi arrives in England with a formidable record: 60 goals in 130 games for Frankfurt, and a place in the Germany squad that reached the Euro 2022 final against England at Wembley. She has operated at the sharp end of major tournaments and high-pressure club fixtures; that experience now drops into a Lionesses side intent on climbing the domestic ladder.

Speaking to the club’s media channels, Anyomi underlined the personal significance of the move, describing how she had always wanted to play abroad and how the offer, and the project behind it, “means the world” to her.

Two forwards, two very different stages of their careers. One teenager breaking records at Manchester United, one established international starting a new chapter in London. Both moves point in the same direction: the WSL is not just holding its own in the global game – it is becoming a league where careers are launched, reshaped and, increasingly, defined.