{"id":395503,"date":"2026-01-08T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395503\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:40:09","slug":"manchester-united-striker-rachel-williams-set-to-join-leicester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395503\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United striker Rachel Williams set to join Leicester"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"Rachel Williams of Manchester United\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2238231164-scaled-e1767868560351-1024x683.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"responsive\" class=\"image-next-root\" style=\"border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;border:none;margin:auto;display:block;width:0;height:0;min-width:100%;max-width:100%;min-height:100%;max-height:100%;object-fit:cover\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Article_ImageCaptionCredit__mkXi_ article-image-caption-credit Typography_body1__xfKuc inherit Typography_base__jzSqr\"> Matt McNulty\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Leicester City are set to sign striker Rachel Williams on a permanent deal from Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p>The deal for Williams, 37, will see her leave United after three and a half years at the club. She was frequently utilised as an impact option from the bench by Marc Skinner and in July <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6473193\/2025\/07\/04\/manchester-united-rachel-williams-contract-director-womens-football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed a contract extension<\/a> through to the summer of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The anticipated move will mark a return to the club where Williams progressed through the academy and spent four years in the first team between 2004 and 2008 before she departed for Doncaster Rovers Belles.<\/p>\n<p>Williams has made 90 appearances for United, scoring 21 goals, and was part of the squad that won the FA Cup in 2024 and qualified for the Champions League main draw for the first time in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Leicester are ninth in the Women\u2019s Super League, six points clear of bottom side Liverpool, having replaced manager Amandine Miquel with Rick Passmoor on the eve of the new season.<\/p>\n<p>United have already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6904641\/2025\/12\/27\/hanna-lundkvist-man-utd-women\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">strengthened during the January window<\/a> with the signings of right-back Hanna Lundkvist and forward Lea Schuller.<\/p>\n<p>Skinner also confirmed on Thursday that midfielder Ella Toone will miss their opening game of 2026 against Arsenal with a hip injury and will be sidelined for a \u201cfew weeks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Winger Leah Galton also has an ongoing back injury while defender Gabby George will be absent for a \u201ccouple of weeks\u201d with a calf issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTooney has a bone stress response in her hip so she will be miss a few weeks. We wish her all the best \u2014 she\u2019s already started her physio, Tooney hates missing football but she always comes back even stronger,\u201d Skinner told MUTV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt McNulty\/Getty Images Leicester City are set to sign striker Rachel Williams on a permanent deal from Manchester&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99,25450],"class_list":{"0":"post-395503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-womens-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}