{"id":71512,"date":"2026-08-14T00:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/71512\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T00:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T00:16:08","slug":"melbourne-city-sign-lethal-striker-melina-ayres-on-two-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/71512\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne City sign lethal striker Melina Ayres on two-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melina Ayres is returning to Melbourne City almost a decade after making her professional debut with the club, signing a two-year deal ahead of the 2026\/27 Ninja A-League season.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old was a member of City\u2019s inaugural Women\u2019s squad in 2015 and scored in the club\u2019s first-ever match, a 6-0 win over Sydney FC.<\/p>\n

Ayres made 16 appearances during her first stint with City, helping the club secure an undefeated Premiership and Championship double in its inaugural season before adding another Championship the following campaign.<\/p>\n

TRANSFER CENTRE: Ninja A-League 2026\/27 Transfer Centre: Your club\u2019s moves<\/a><\/p>\n

She returns to City after spells with Melbourne Victory, Icelandic club Brei\u00f0ablik and, most recently, Newcastle Jets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to be returning to the Club who first put their faith in me and gave me my start in the W-League,\u201d Ayres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some incredible memories from those first two seasons, and I\u2019m really excited to get the opportunity to return to City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe standards the group has set over the past few seasons speak for themselves, and I can\u2019t wait to be part of this next chapter. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to get to work, reconnect with the fans and hopefully bring more success to the Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Melina Ayres of Melbourne City (L)<\/p>\n

Ayres has scored 44 goals in 116 Ninja A-League appearances, putting her equal eighth on the competition\u2019s all-time goalscoring list.<\/p>\n

Her form during the 2025\/26 season earned her selection in the A-League All Stars squad for Wednesday night\u2019s clash with Chelsea, where she featured alongside five of her new City teammates.<\/p>\n

Ayres becomes City\u2019s second signing of the off-season following the arrival of Matildas forward Cortnee Vine earlier this week.<\/p>\n

TRANSFER NEWS:
Sydney FC sign \u2018exceptional\u2019 goalscorer ahead of 26\/27 campaign<\/a>
Wellington Phoenix confirm departure of midfielder Macey Fraser<\/a>
Phoenix make statement signing as Yallop joins after emotional Roar exit<\/a><\/p>\n

The move also strengthens Michael Matricciani\u2019s squad ahead of a third consecutive AFC Women\u2019s Champions League campaign, with City coming off a Premiership and Championship-winning 2025\/26 season.<\/p>\n

Melbourne City Director of Football Michael Petrillo said the club was delighted to bring Ayres back to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelina\u2019s return is a special one for our football club,\u201d Petrillo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe played an important role in the early success of our Women\u2019s program, and she is one of the competition\u2019s most consistent and dangerous attacking players.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer experience, goalscoring ability and understanding of what it takes to succeed will be a valuable addition to our squad, and we\u2019re excited to welcome her back to Melbourne City.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melina Ayres is returning to Melbourne City almost a decade after making her professional debut with the club,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[342,1417,4640,260,152,24641],"class_list":["post-71512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-a-league-women","tag-a-leagues","tag-alwfeatured","tag-melbourne","tag-news","tag-transfer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}