Arsenal have signed Spain international Ona Batlle on a free transfer following her exit from Barcelona. <\/p>\n
It is understood that Batlle has joined on a four-year deal, with an option to extend for a further year. <\/p>\n
The 27-year-old, widely regarded as one of the best full-backs in the world, left Barcelona after helping them win the Champions League in May.<\/p>\n
During her three-year spell in Spain, Batlle made 114 appearances as Barcelona won three successive league titles and two European cups.<\/p>\n
Batlle also started their Champions League final defeat by Arsenal in 2025.<\/p>\n
“Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world and I can’t wait to feel the joy of playing in front of our supporters at Emirates Stadium alongside so many great players,” said Batlle.<\/p>\n
“I want to win trophies and I feel this is the right place to achieve that.”<\/p>\n
Batlle graduated from Barcelona’s academy before making her senior debut for Madrid CFF in 2017. <\/p>\n
She gained regular first-team football at fellow Spanish top-flight side Levante before joining Manchester United in 2020.<\/p>\n
The defender went on to make 77 appearances for United before returning to Barcelona as an established Spain international.<\/p>\n
Batlle has played 76 times for Spain and was part of the squad that won the World Cup in 2023 and finished runners-up to England at Euro 2025.<\/p>\n
She was named in the Fifa Best XI in 2024 and 2025 and it is believed she signed a pre-contract agreement to join Arsenal earlier this year.<\/p>\n
“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to bring Ona to the club,” said Arsenal manager Renee Slegers.<\/p>\n
“She’s a hugely experienced full-back with strong attacking intent and great physical attributes. She’s a winner and we want to go for more wins together.”<\/p>\n
Arsenal’s director of women’s football Clare Wheatley said: “Ona’s track record at both club and international level speaks for itself. <\/p>\n
“She’s a proven winner with a hunger to add more trophies. We’re delighted to bring one of the best defenders in the world to Arsenal.”<\/p>\n
Batlle will wear the number 22 shirt at Arsenal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal have signed Spain international Ona Batlle on a free transfer following her exit from Barcelona. It is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-754670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754670","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=754670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}