Arsenal have announced the signing of French goalkeeper, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin.

The 26-year-old arrives from Lyon and will likely take the role of understudy to Sari van Veenendaal, with Anna Moorhouse making way for her.

The 5ft8 keeper began her senior career with Lyon before spells with FF Issy, Saint Etienne and Marseille before returning to Lyon at the start of last season.

She has represented her country at u17, 19, 20 and B level.

Manager, Joe Montemurro added, “Pauline has experienced playing against some of the best female footballers in the world. She has formed part of a squad who won three Women’s Champions League trophies and three domestic titles. As a young player, that is a huge achievement that says a lot about the quality of her skills and attributes as a goalkeeper.”

This signing had been expected after a number of cryptic tweets on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/RomBalland/status/1011278867527602178

Among the six people who liked the above tweet was a partner at the AV Sports agency, who recently signed a Peyraud-Magnin as a client:

https://twitter.com/teamavsports/status/1013543627551903744

They also tweeted that the player was going to leave the D1 Feminine to play abroad:

https://twitter.com/teamavsports/status/1013923193193730049

Olympique Lyonnais, the current Women Champions League holders, confirmed Peyraud-Magnin left the club after one season as Sarah Bouhaddi’s back up before Arsenal made this announcement.

She did all her youth training at Lyon, staying there for nine years between the ages of 13 and 22.  Peyraud-Magnin then moved on in search of first-team football as Sarah Bouhaddi was, and still is, the undisputed number one there.

Peyraud-Magnin played one season at Issy Les Moulineaux before moving to St Etienne and moved on again, to Marseille, a year later where she was superb in their initial season in the D1 Feminine.

That prompted a call from Lyon for her to come back as Bouhaddi’s understudy.