Bompastor welcomes Mpome to Chelsea in their native French tongue as our new defender’s family watch on proudly. The magnitude of this move is sinking in for the entire Mpome clan. Maelys is a Chelsea player now, exactly as she imagined it as a little girl.

‘I have family here in London and they support Chelsea,’ Mpome tells us. ‘I remember the first time I came to London. I was about 10 years old. My mother asked me if I wanted to get a football shirt. “Yes, a Chelsea shirt please!” So she got me the shirt.

'So then when Chelsea called me, I was just like: “Yeah, of course, I want to come!”

‘I’m very excited. It’s like a dream to join such a big club. Now I am older, I can see what a big institution it is, and how hard-working everyone is.’

Mpome and Bompastor overlapped in the French league, with our head coach taking note of the 21-year-old’s performances for Montpellier. ‘I think she knew me pretty well,’ smiles Mpome. ‘She called me and told me she was interested in my profile. Okay, let’s go!’

Mpome, a France Under-23 international who has played for her country in the same team as Oriane Jean-Francois - another arrival at Chelsea during this transfer window - is confident Bompastor’s tactical acumen will improve her.

When we ask what her strengths are, Mpome paints a picture of part old-fashioned English centre-back, part modern defender.

‘I like tackling and headers. I am very athletic, very fast for a central defender, and very hard in the contact.’

Maelys is true to her word when she says she loves to laugh and smile. She is bubbly and brimming with excitement for the journey ahead.

Having grown up in the suburbs of Paris, Mpome is accustomed to life in the city. She has long wished to live in London and has friends and family here to help her settle.

Mpome’s footballing journey started on the streets of the French capital. She played in school, too, before joining a local club called VGA Saint-Maur.

‘I stayed 10 years there before I signed my first contract in Montpellier,’ she details. ‘They taught me the game, I owe them a lot. It was a pretty good club at the time, playing in the second division in France, one year in the first. I always played with the older girls, never the boys.

‘I just loved football. I have always loved football. I didn’t want to be a professional player from the beginning, when I was young, it just happened that way. I just wanted to play at the best level I could.’

We can safely say Mpome has certainly done that, as she has joined England’s most successful club for the past five years, and one of the very best in European competition. Claiming the missing prize in our trophy cabinet stands at the top of her wish list.

‘Like everyone here, I hope to win the Champions League,’ she says. 'And I want to improve as a player. That’s it.’

Mpome is certainly in the place to continue realising her dreams.