Welcome to Southampton, Rianna
Saints have completed the permanent signing of forward, Rianna Dean during the summer transfer window. The 24-year-old striker joins us from Crystal Palace. An exciting new prospect joining our ranks and bolstering our already strong team. Looking forward to seeing her in the famous red and white!
Who is Rianna Dean?
Rianna Dean is a 24-year-old striker who formerly played for fellow Championship side, Crystal Palace. Rianna also has a strong set of previous experience with former clubs including those of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. Also has caps under her belt for the youth England sides.
Rianna started her career at the Arsenal youth academy in the 2016/17 season which saw her score a total of 37 goals in the 20 games that she played with the development side. Later going on to make one senior appearance against London Bees in the cup. She later left the Gunners looking to pursue first team football elsewhere.
After leaving Arsenal, Rianna signed a one-year contract for Millwall Lionesses, in which she scored 10 goals in all competitions. The expiry of her contact at Millwall saw her sign a with Tottenham Hostpur, her first three games for the club saw her score 6 goals, 3 of which were a Hattrick. In that season, she scored a total of 14 goals securing second joint top scorer and those goals helped Spurs claim promotion into the WSL.
Rianna was released by Spurs at the end of the 2020/21 season, which then saw her go on and sign for former championship side, Liverpool. During this season, she only played 3 games but scored 2 goals. Her last game for Liverpool being September 2021, after the first 3 games aggravated an undiagnosed injury for Plantar Facilits (injury to the tendon under your foot), this meant Rianna was out for 16 months for recovery.
She then signed for Crystal Palace in 2022 which saw her play 6 games and scoring 1 goal.
Just to get you in the mood!!
Here is some of her best skills and goals!!
Rianna has been described as one of the most clinical finishers, when she is at her best. Which as we know, we need clinical, and we need goals within our squad so hopefully we will see her bag some. Another interesting fact is that not only has she won promotion to the super league once in her career, but she’s won promotion twice.
Rianna is coming into the squad already knowing a few of our staff and players, with ‘reunited’ tweets being thrown out by Meg Wynne, coach Lauren Phillips and of course being reunited with Chloe Peplow, who she’s played with twice before at Palace and Spurs. This is a team that is building a family through networks and past experience. Who else could we see come through the door? We have at least 5 more positions to fill within the team, but growing a squad this way, the future is bright, the future is red and white.
We welcome Rianna to the mighty Saints and we look forward to seeing her talent and play in the new upcoming season!
[Information sourced from online website]
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