West Ham United Women have made their second summer signing as defender Maz Pacheco joins the Hammers from Reading.
Matt Beard knows her very well as he gave her a senior debut whilst at he was manager of Liverpool in 2015.
The left-back has spent the last two seasons at Reading where she played 20 times in her debut season before adding a further 16 appearances during the curtailed 2019-20 season.
She follows Australian international Mackenzie Arnold into the east London club as the goalkeeper confirmed on Thursday.
I’m very excited to join West Ham,” Pacheco told whufc.com. “West Ham is a brand-new team that is still very much at the start of their journey, and I think that’s like I am as well.
“I really like the idea of growing together with the Club and giving everything I can for this shirt. With the players already here, it’s going to be a great group to be around and I can’t wait to get started.”
At international level, Pacheco has represented England up to Under-21s level and help the young Lionesses to a third-place finish at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
She played in England women’s Under-21s most recent fixture, playing 62 minutes in the 2-0 victory over France at St George’s Park in March.
On sealing the deal Matt Beard was delighted as he explained “Maz is, first of all, a great person with a fantastic personality. When I was at Liverpool, I gave Maz her debut at 16-years-old, and she was good enough then to play at the top level.
“She is a great attacking full-back and I’m looking forward to continuing her development as a player here. She’s a great talent already and there is a lot more to come from her as well”.
“She’s young and comes with a lot of WSL experience. We’ve got ourselves a young, English, elite player. The ambition for her now is to get into this West Ham team, play regularly, and hopefully we can help her fulfil her international ambitions too.”
West Ham stepped up their preparations for the 2020-21 season on Tuesday as they returned to pre-season at their new state of the art Chadwell Heath training ground.
Photo: @WestHamWomen
