Manchester City have confirmed the signing of England international Grace Clinton from rivals Manchester United.

Clinton had entered the final year of her contract at United and the club reluctantly accepted an offer from City on Wednesday to avoid losing the midfielder for free next summer.

United lost Alessia Russo, Ona Batlle and Mary Earps across recent years due to expiring contracts.

Clinton could make her Man City debut on Friday as the club begin their WSL campaign away to Chelsea, live on Sky Sports.

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Earlier on WSL Deadline Day, Clinton’s England team-mate Jess Park moved the opposite way across Manchester, joining United from City on a four-year deal.

Clinton, 22, becomes City’s sixth summer signing, joining Jade Rose, Iman Beney, Sydney Lohmann, Eartha Cumings and Laura Wienroither in moving to the Joie Stadium.

Having begun her professional career at Everton and breaking into the Toffees’ first team as a 17-year-old, Clinton moved to Manchester United in 2022.

Loan spells at Bristol City and Tottenham Hotspur followed in the next two campaigns, with her performances at the latter seeing her named PFA Women’s Young Player of the Year for 2023-24.

Returning to United for the 2024-25 campaign, Clinton featured 28 times in all competitions, with Elisabeth Terland the only player to better her nine goals.

Having been a regular for the Young Lionesses at from the Under-17s through to the Under-23s team, Clinton received her first senior England call-up in February 2024 – featuring, and scoring, in a 7-2 victory over Austria.

Then came the historic 2025 European Championships this summer where she was a dependable member of the Lionesses side who became the first England senior team to win a major honour on foreign soil.

Clinton said: “City, for me, have always played an amazing style of football. There are amazing players here. Hemp, Bunny, Miedema, Hasegawa are just a few of them and I want to get better and grow and learn things in my career and I think there are amazing people here to learn things from.

“To play this style of football will be really enjoyable.”

Clinton had earlier sent a parting shot to Man Utd with her goodbye message to the club on Instagram.

She added: “I feel the future of the club and I aren’t on the same page. For me personally, the next step is about growth, I want to continue to develop and learn.”

Manchester City Women director of football Therese Sjogran added: “We’re really pleased to have been able to bring Grace to Manchester City – she’s a player we have admired for a while now.

“She is still a young player but already has a lot of experience under her belt, and we believe she will fit in seamlessly with our style of play and add to the talented squad we already have.

“We’re very much looking forward to working with Grace over the coming seasons and seeing her make her mark in a Manchester City shirt.”

Why have the two Manchester clubs done business?

Sky Sports News’ Anton Toloui:

“Grace Clinton has been Manchester City’s biggest target all summer. They wanted to try and get a deal done before the Euros, but it all went quiet. Obviously, towards the end of the window, interest in the box-to-box specialist that City have wanted all window has ramped up again.

“From Man Utd’s perspective, they could not afford a repeat of the mistakes they made with Alessia Russo, Mary Earps, and Ona Batlle in the past. That meant they had to engage in a potential deal, but only if Jess Park moved in the other direction.

“We’ve seen players move between the Manchester clubs before but only really as much younger players.

“Ella Toone left Manchester City when she was just emerging as a young professional to go to Manchester United, and there is also Alex Greenwood, who has actually played for all four of the North West clubs.

“So it’s maybe not as controversial, but as the rivalry gets bigger – these are the two teams that finished third and fourth last year – the competition for the best talent will only grow.”

Sky Sports is the home of the WSL – what’s new this season?

As part of Sky’s new bumper rights partnership with the Women’s Super League, Sky Sports will broadcast 118 matches from the WSL every season, up more than three times from the number of games previously shown with 78 fixtures shown exclusively.

Sky Sports will celebrate a landmark WSL season with a new flagship programme dedicated to Sunday lunchtime kick-offs.

The show will offer a 60-minute build-up from 11am, featuring the latest breaking news from every ground, plus more behind-the-scenes content than ever before.

The Sky Sports app also makes it easier than ever to follow the action on mobile with vertical video highlights, match centres packed with scores and stats available for FREE to all fans, plus live streams for Sky Sports customers.

Free-to-watch match highlights from EVERY WSL game will continue to be served up on the Sky Sports website and App.