Shels confirm deal to sign World Cup winner O'Reilly

Shelbourne have confirmed the signing of American World Cup winner Heather O'Reilly, who has come out of retirement to try to help the Dublin club qualify for the Women's Champions League.

O'Reilly, who along with winner a World Cup with her native USA, has three Olympic gold medals, retired in 2019 after a hugely successful career that saw her capped 231 times.

She's the 10th most capped player of all time and joins on an initial deal that will take her until the end of the season.

The 37-year-old played for several different teams in the National Women's Soccer League and had a season-long stint with Arsenal in the WSL.

Speaking on the BBC World Football podcast where she is a host, O'Reilly revealed that despite all she has achieved in her career, she felt that something was still missing because she had never played in the Champions League.

A recent conversation with Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger convinced her to come out of retirement to give it one more try and that has led her to joining with Shelbourne.

O'Reilly explained that following conversations with former team-mates Denise O'Sullivan and Katie McCabe, she reached out to Shels.

"I reached out to them. I don't know if it was known that I was interested in coming out of retirement. It has been three years nearly since I officially retired from club football. People needed to know that I was interested.

"When I was contemplating what clubs would be interesting to me and what clubs I felt I could make an immediate impact on, I thought about Shelbourne. They're the champions of Ireland, they had a very successful season last year in order to win the league, but they are still very much a club and a league that needs a lot of growth.

"Some of my former team-mates are