Goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel signs new Manchester United deal | OneFootball

Safia Middleton-Patel of Manchester United looks on (Photo by Jess Hornby/Getty Images)

Wales goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel has signed a new contract with Manchester United, set to keep her at the club until June 2028.

Middleton-Patel made her senior debut for the club in a League Cup win over Newcastle United in December 2024, having previously had loan spells at Blackburn Rovers, Leicester City, Coventry United and Watford.

Safia said: “I am so happy to be continuing my journey with Manchester United and excited about what’s to come in the next three years.“It was a dream to make my Manchester United debut last year and my ambition is to gradually compete for more minutes while also learning from and supporting the other excellent goalkeepers we have at the club.”

Matt Johnson, director of women’s football at Manchester United, said: “We are proud of the progress Safia has made since joining our Academy five years ago and excited by her potential to develop further. Any club challenging for honours needs more than one top goalkeeper; in Safia, Kayla [Rendell] and Phallon [Tullis-Joyce], we are fortunate to have one of the strongest groups in women’s football.”

About Safia Middleton-Patel’s career

As a 17-year-old, Middleton-Patel had dual registration with Blackburn Rovers, but did not make a senior appearance for them at that time; she returned to the club 18 months later on an emergency loan, and it was then that she kept her first clean sheet in senior football, shutting out Sunderland in a 1-0 win.

Middleton-Patel currently has five senior caps for Wales, having made her debut in 2023 in the Pinatar Cup against the Philippines, keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 win. She was named in the Wales squad for the Women’s Euros in Switzerland over the summer, and is believed to be the first female player with Asian heritage to play at a Euros for any country.

She has spoken previously about being diagnosed as an adult with autism spectrum disorder, telling club media: “I want to be that role model because unfortunately there is a negative stigma around ASD and autism.

“There is nothing different about it, we just see life a little bit differently.

And she says she experiences the characteristic of hyperfocus while on the pitch.

“When I am on the training ground or playing a game I don’t hear anything – it’s just the ball and myself,” she told the BBC earlier in the year.

“I probably hear my own heartbeat more than anything else.”