Manchester City have announced the signing of teenage Australia striker Mary Fowler from Montpellier on a four-year deal.
The 19-year-old, who was only 15 when she made her senior Australia debut in 2018, has scored seven goals in 24 appearances for her country to date, which included one in the Matildas’ quarter-final victory over Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics last summer.
She joins after two and a half years with Montpellier, before which she played in her homeland for Adelaide United.
Fowler – recently named Australia’s PFA young women’s footballer of the year, and second in the NXGN 2022 shortlist highlighting the best young up and coming players in the world – told Sky Sports News: “Man City is a really big club and they play really beautiful football.
“Going to this club, I’ll have all the resources around me to better myself as a player and become the player I think I can become. The coaching staff and facilities and the level of player I’ll be around is top level. To be able to go into this environment is everything I need to move forward.
“I’ve been to the facilities at City before a few years ago to train with them so I knew what the facilities were like and the kind of resources that they had.
“Talking to Gareth, you get a feel for his football brain and talking to him, I look at him and see there is so much he can teach me. He has such a value on growing players as individuals so by him giving me the spiel about how the set-up works and his ideas, I really connected with that and it seems like a place I could really grow.
Mary Fowler joined from Montpellier
“Knowing all the resources that are there, and the kind of football minds I’m working with, that’s really important for me. I’m surrounded by people who are thinking like me but also have more knowledge than me. People I can grow from and for me, recognising that I have everything I need there to grow as a player.
“After one year, I’m not going to be like ‘it’s not challenging me as a player’, after two years it’s not going to be like that either. I’m always going to have a challenge there and people who are going to push me so for me to commit for that amount of time, it wasn’t a hard decision because I wanted to be the best player I can become.
“Going to City, I have everything I need. To have the club want me for that length of time, it’s such a confidence boost because I can feel how much they’re also investing in my future.”
Fowler joins her international teammates Hayley Raso and Alanna Kennedy at Man City, but says she did not consult them before deciding on her move.
The striker is an Australia international, making her debut at 15
She added: “I actually didn’t talk to them about my decision to go there. It makes it a lot easier when you already know people at the club, I’m excited to play alongside them at club level at the national team I didn’t talk to them at all about what it’s like, it didn’t come into my decision making.
“From what I already knew, to seeing them playing and my chat with Gareth, that was enough for me to decide.”
City boss Taylor added to the club’s official website: “Mary is without a doubt one of the most exciting young talents in the game right now and we’re absolutely thrilled to have her join us here at City.
“She has a maturity beyond her years, but for her, she’s excited to come to England to learn and grow as a player.
“The fact that she made her senior international debut at just 15 really does show what high regard she is held in by the football world and we feel as though she’ll fit right in here with our team at City.
“Having her put pen to paper on a four-year deal also speaks volumes about our own commitment and also ours as a club to her development, and we can’t wait to start working with her.”
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