'I couldn’t refuse': England striker Jodie Taylor joins Lyon for rest of year
England’s Jodie Taylor has joined Lyon until the end of 2020, the club have announced.
The 34-year-old former Arsenal striker has been playing in the United States with OL Reign, who were recently taken over by Lyon’s parent company, OL Groupe.
Related: Women's transfer window summer 2020 – all deals from Europe's top five leagues
Lyon have three other England players in their squad in Lucy Bronze, Nikita Parris and Alex Greenwood. Bronze and Greenwood are expected to leave at the end of this season, after Lyon’s participation in the Champions League.
Lyon have won that tournament for the past four years and face Bayern Munich in a quarter-final in Bilbao on 22 August, with Taylor eligible to play.
She told Lyon’s website: “I’m very happy to join OL and can’t wait to play with my new team. I just finished my season with OL Reign in the United States but I kind of stay in the same family.
“I talked a lot with my English teammates like Lucy Bronze who has been at the club for a long time, and I couldn’t refuse the opportunity to play for one of the best teams in the world.”
Related: Uefa's forward thinking creates great Women's Champions League climax | Suzanne Wrack
Taylor has played at the last two World Cups and was the top scorer at Euro 2017. She joined Reign in November 2017.
OL Reign’s CEO, Bill Predmore, said: “When the opportunity arose for Jodie to move to OL to support their run in the Coupe de France and Champions League – as well as for the first part of OL’s upcoming season – we felt it important to support Jodie given all she has contributed to the club. We are happy that Jodie will be able to pursue this opportunity and would gladly welcome her back to our club in the future.”
