Melbourne Victory kicks off its W-League season this Sunday with a grand final re-match against Sydney FC at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park.
Melbourne lost last year’s grand final 3-1 at AAMI Park and has since signed one of the highest profile players in women’s soccer
Matildas star Lisa De Vanna is the big off-season acquisition, with the 28-year-old moving to Melbourne for family reasons and signing for the Victory in the process.
The 75-time capped De Vanna has scored 26 goals for Australia, and also scored the match-winning goal for Brisbane Roar in the 2011 W-League grand final.
De Vanna played for Melbourne on Saturday in a trial match against the Victorian women’s premier league all stars. It finished 0-0.
PICTURE GALLERY: Melbourne Victory v WPL all-stars
“Having some of the younger players from Melbourne come through the ranks in the national team like Steph (Catley) and Bri (Davey) influenced me to come here,” De Vanna said.
“There’s a young, humble group of players here, players who want to play and do well. It made me think, why not join Melbourne?”
Australian international Catley will captain the Victory, while international signings Jessica Fishlock (Wales) and Jessica Samuelsson (Sweden) will join the squad within the first month of the season.
Kick-off on Sunday is 3pm.
