Canadian striker Janine Beckie has become the latest player to sign for Manchester City Women.
Beckie, who will turn 24 on August 20, joins the Club on a one-year deal from Sky Blue FC subject to international clearance, having previously played for Houston Dash and Texas Tech University.
While her parents come from Saskatchewan, Beckie grew up in Colorado and holds dual Canadian and U.S. Citizenship though most of her relatives still reside in Saskatchewan.
She helped her country to Olympic bronze in the 2016 Olympics, scoring three goals in Rio including the fastest ever goal in Olympics history – timed at just 20 seconds – on August 3, 2016.
Recalling the moment during an interview with CityTV on Wednesday in New York, Beckie said: “I remember scoring and coming back to half and looking up at the scoreboard and realising we had 89 minutes left to play.”
“We actually ended up going down to 10 players in that game and ended up winning 2-0. That’s one of my favourite games that I ever played with the national team.”
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In her time at Texas Tech, she scored 57 goals – becoming the Red Raiders’ all-time leading scorer – which led to a move to Houston Dash where she played alongside another former Manchester City player Carli Lloyd.
Lloyd’s recollections of her time at City clearly left an impression on the young Canadian who later moved on to Sky Blue FC and then opted for a move to Europe to move on to the next step in her football education.
“She came back raving about it,” explained Beckie. “She’s someone who’s really put soccer on the map in America, and now all over the world.
“To hear her come back and talk about what a professional environment it is – the soccer’s great, the coaching is great, the facilities are great – it’s really cool to have a player like her speak so highly of my new team.”
Beckie is looking forward to the training on offer at City, adding: “[Sky Blue FC] really tried to instil a style of possession, one-two touch, which was something that wasn’t really a huge part of my game before Sky Blue,”
“It definitely was [part of my game], but the emphasis was more than it ever has been and that was really important for me, to take the next step.”
- City play a prestigious friendly against FC Barcelona on Sunday, August 12, kick off 7.30pm.