Melbourne Victory is pleased to announce it has signed goalkeepers Gaby Garton and Melissa Maizels for the 2020/21 Westfield W-League season.
Garton played college football in the US before moving to play in Argentina for River Plate, Sol de Mayo and UAI Urquiza.
She has also represented Argentina on the international stage and was part of their 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup squad.
The 30-year-old said she was looking forward to the start of the season on December 27.
“Everyone at the club has been extremely welcoming since I arrived in Melbourne and I’m really happy to have signed with Victory,” Garton said.
“The club has been very competitive in recent years, has wonderful support and I can’t wait to pull on the gloves this season. There’s a great feeling and drive amongst the playing group and coaches to continue to improve this season.
“We’ve put in plenty of hard work, we have a couple of practice matches to come which will provide us with a good opportunity to fine tune before Round 1 against the Wanderers.”
Maizels has re-signed with Victory and said the squad is driven to improve on last season.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to re-sign with the club,” Maizels said.
“Jeff has put us through another tough pre-season so we feel we’re ready for the games to start on December 27.
“As a squad we have a collective focus on making the finals and taking the next step this season. We know we’ll have to be at our best and each match will be vitally important to us achieving our goal.”
W-League Head Coach, Jeff Hopkins, said it was great to almost have his full squad locked away.
“We’re really pleased to have signed Gaby and Mel for the 2020/21 season,” Hopkins said.
“Mel and Gaby add plenty of experience to our group having played at the top level in Australia and overseas. They are tough competitors and will help us drive the standards and expectations we need to achieve in order to improve.
“On a sad note, Casey Dumont will miss this season due to injury. Casey has been a fantastic competitor for our club over the past three years and on behalf of everyone at Victory, we wish her a speedy recovery.
“The season is only a couple of weeks away, and I’ve been really impressed with how hard the squad has been working. With a couple of practice matches to come we feel this will give us a good chance to see where we’re at ahead of our opening match against the Wanderers on December 27.”
Current Melbourne Victory W-League squad:
Melina AYRES, MelindaJ BARBIERI, Angela BEARD, Claudia BUNGE, Kyra COONEY-CROSS, Lisa DE VANNA, Polly DORAN, Gaby GARTON, Amy JACKSON, Annalie LONGO, Maja MARKOVSKI, Natalie MARTINEAU, Mel MAIZELS, Kayla MORRISON, Lia PRIVITELLI, Catherine ZIMMERMAN
