Ona Batlle has 'everything to be a captain' as Man Utd work hard to keep star

Manchester United are still ‘working hard’ to secure the long-term future of star right-back Ona Batlle, a player who Marc Skinner has brought into his senior leadership group.

Batlle only turned 23 over the summer and remains one of the younger players in the current United squad. But the Spaniard was handed the captaincy for the Continental Cup game against Aston Villa earlier this month ahead of a number of older and more experienced players.

“Ona is part of my leadership group,” Skinner explained. “I have four leaders. The reason [she was captain] is she offers a different type of leadership to the others. She very much leads by example.

“She, without doubt in my mind, is one of the best right backs, if not the best, right back in the world. She’s a great, great leader, great character and wants to win everything that she plays.”

Skinner didn’t deny the suggestion that including Batlle, whose contract expires at the end of the season and has previously been a target for Barcelona and Chelsea, in the leadership group was a way of showing her the important role she could continue to have at the club in the long-term.

“She’s got everything to be a captain and we’re obviously working hard to try and keep her at the club and progress with her even further,” the United boss said.

A product of Barcelona’s youth setup, Batlle arrived at United in the summer of 2020 and was named the club’s Player of the Year in her first season, voted for by teammates and coaching staff.

She then went from strength to strength last season, taking a place in the PFA WSL Team of the Year, and has started the new 2022/23 campaign equally as impressively.

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