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Tottenham have announced the signing of the former Real Madrid forward Hayley Raso after the expiration of her contract with the Spanish club. The Australia international, who has 82 caps and has scored 19 goals for her country, has signed a two-year deal and will wear the No 8 shirt at Tottenham. Raso swapped the A-League for the Women’s Super League in 2020, joining Everton and helping them to the FA Cup final. After 18 months she was recruited by Manchester City, where she scored nine goals in 29 games playing on the right of a front three.

“Coming into the facilities, meeting the staff, everything is exceptional,” the 29-year-old forward said in an interview on Tottenham’s website. “I’ve met a few of the girls already and they are super sweet, I can’t wait to get started. “The WSL is such a competitive league, you can see that in all of the games. So coming back here was an easy choice. I want to be in this league at this level and Spurs was the team I chose to do it with. I had a good chat with Robert [Vilahamn, the head coach], he gave such a good impression, such a good vibe of the team, and I spoke to Charlie [Grant, the Australia defender] about what she thought about the club.”

Raso is Tottenham’s fifth signing of the summer, with Amanda Nilden joining from Juventus, Araya Dennis making the move from Arsenal, Ella Morris joining from Southampton and Clare Hunt, a fellow Australian, joining from Paris Saint-Germain.

As Raso arrives, it is understood that the Norway winger Celin Bizet is close to leaving Spurs after Manchester United met the release clause in the 22-year-old’s contract, believed to be in the region of £60,000.

Multiple sources confirmed that Bizet was undergoing a medical at United on Sunday. Marc Skinner’s side are understood to be hopeful that Bizet could travel with the squad to Marbella on Tuesday for the start of their training camp, should the relevant paperwork be completed in time.