{"id":1185805,"date":"2026-09-04T09:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1185805\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T09:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:58:21","slug":"manchester-city-failed-to-land-spain-pair-in-scramble-for-miedema-cover-manchester-city-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1185805\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City failed to land Spain pair in scramble for Miedema cover | Manchester City Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atl\u00e9tico Madrid rejected a bid of more than \u00a3500,000 from Manchester City for the Spain midfielder Fiamma Ben\u00edtez on the Women\u2019s Super League\u2019s transfer deadline day, the Guardian can reveal.<\/p>\n

The WSL champions are understood to have tried hard to add attacking-midfielder reinforcements before the English summer window closed on Thursday at 11pm BST, largely in light of news that their No 10 Vivianne Miedema could be out for at least the rest of 2026<\/a> with a knee injury.<\/p>\n

However, Atl\u00e9tico are understood to view Ben\u00edtez as a key player and a future national team star and were not prepared to let the 22-year-old go. In 2022 Ben\u00edtez helped Spain win the Under-19 Euros and Under-20 Women\u2019s World Cup and she helped her country win the 2024 Women\u2019s Nations League.<\/p>\n

City then made an even later move for Everton\u2019s Spain international Ornella Vignola, who can play in midfield or on the wing. A bid of about \u00a3400,000 is understood to have been turned down by Everton, largely because they felt they would not have time to source a suitable replacement but also because of Vignola\u2019s importance to Scott Phelan\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

It was also widely reported that City attempted to bring in the Nigeria midfielder Jennifer Echegini from Paris Saint-Germain, but multiple sources have told the Guardian that PSG made clear they were not willing to sell the 25-year-old. PSG had agreed to sell the France defender \u00c9lisa De Almeida to Arsenal for a fee believed to be just over \u00a3500,000, and they were not prepared to lose two key players in one day.<\/p>\n

City completed one deadline-day deal, bringing in England\u2019s Anna Moorhouse on loan from Orlando Pride until the end of January, adding good-quality depth to their goalkeeping ranks after Khiara Keating moved to Liverpool on a free in July.<\/p>\n

Although City were left scrambling unsuccessfully for a midfielder on Thursday, it was a positive summer for the club, not least because they began the summer with their most important deal, retaining the services of the WSL\u2019s Golden Boot winner Khadija Shaw with a lucrative new contract<\/a>. Andr\u00e9e Jeglertz\u2019s side begin their title defence at home to promoted Birmingham City on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal will discover their Women\u2019s Champions League league phase opponents on Friday, with the draw due to begin at 11am BST.<\/p>\n

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On Friday at 1pm Suzanne Wrack will be answering readers\u2019 questions about the new WSL season for Guardian Conversations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atl\u00e9tico Madrid rejected a bid of more than \u00a3500,000 from Manchester City for the Spain midfielder Fiamma Ben\u00edtez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1185806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":["post-1185805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117212187044983192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1185806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}