Chelsea Women’s Jamie-Lee Napier has joined Birmingham City on a season-long loan for the 2020/21 campaign.
The Scottish international has moved to the Midlands for the forthcoming Barclays FA Women’s Super League season to gain valuable playing time in women’s top-flight football.Having joined the Blues in December, the 20-year-old has had limited involvement since then, featuring on four occasions for Emma Hayes’ side. In January Napier made her debut in our 3-1 victory against Reading when she was brought on in the closing stages of the match.The move to Chelsea was Napier’s first professional contract after joining from Hibernian Ladies where she enjoyed plenty of success. She was named as the Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 Player of the Year for 2019. She played in 33 games and she found the target 22 times.Napier has represented her country at Under-17s and Under-19s level and earned her first senior call-up in August 2019 in Scotland’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 qualifier against Cyprus.She joins Women’s Super League outfit Birmingham City who finished second from bottom with seven points last term.Manager Emma Hayes spoke about the decision to now send Napier out on loan and said: ‘It’s important that Jamie-Lee plays at a high level week in week out and we think her joining Birmingham on loan will be extremely beneficial for her development.‘We will of course be keeping an eye on her progress and wish her all the best for the season ahead.’
Chelsea Women start their WSL campaign away to Manchester United today. Kick-off is at 2.30pm and the game is live on BT Sport in the UK. There will also be updates on our @ChelseaFCW Twitter account.