Manchester United’s summer business has played no small part their rise to the top of the Women’s Super League table, in what is just their second season in the top-flight.
World Cup winners Tobin Heath and Christen Press have been electric; Spaniard Ona Batlle has excelled in an inverted full-back role; exciting England youngster Alessia Russo has scored goals for fun; and WSL stalwart Lucy Staniforth is now showing what she can do after a spell on the sidelines.
But, due to injuries, there is still one summer arrival who is yet to shine.
Ivana Fuso may not have been a statement signing like Heath or Press, but for a club that excel in developing young talent, the 19-year-old was a fantastic acquisition.
“She has outstanding ability, especially her quick feet,” Friederike Kromp, a coach at the German Football Association (DFB) who has developed a great relationship with Fuso since first working with her in 2017, told Goal .
“She's very fast, she has very good decision making under high pressure and, in the end, to make it easy, she knows how to score.”
Born in Brazil but raised in Stuttgart, Fuso quickly made an impression in Germany, named in the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championships' Team of the Tournament in 2018 as her side reached the final.
It is not just her ability on the pitch that makes her so highly-rated, though. Asked what made her stand out from a young age, Kromp picked out the former Basel forward’s “unique personality” - something United head coach Casey Stoney has already complimented.
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“She's a great character, she's bubbly, [and] she brings out her personality every day,” Stoney said in November.
“It's not been easy for her. To get back on the grass, and hopefully back playing again, will just bring out that smile and she can really start to feel integrated within the club and the team.”
Such a personality meant Fuso, who made her senior debut for Freiburg just two weeks after her 17th birthday, was named captain of Germany’s U19s. It is a role Kromp says she grew into impressively.
“She gets a good mood in the team,” she explained. “That's very important for us as coaches because, with her, it's always funny, but in the end, she's very focused. She knows when to switch and be serious.”
Unsurprisingly, Fuso’s progress has not gone unnoticed in her country of birth.
"She told me she's in touch with [Brazil]," Kromp revealed. "First of all, that's very cool. I'm really happy for her. Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, our head coach of the senior national team, is informed and she intends to speak to Ivana too.
“We will accept every decision, but of course, we would be happy if she decides to stay and play for us in the future as well.”
Fuso’s immediate future, though, concerns rebuilding her fitness and making an impact in Manchester.
After a trio of appearances on the bench for United, the teenager made her club debut during Wednesday's Continental Cup clash with Everton.
Following her injuries, it will take some time until she gets to shine in the No.10 role that Kromp believes is her best.
“At the moment, in terms of where she's at physically, it would be across one of the top three positions that I would use her,” Stoney explained.
“The fact that she's very fast, she can carry the ball, she can go one-v-one, and she can get us in dangerous positions, I think I'd want to utilise that higher up the pitch.”
But Fuso can excel in those roles too and, at United, she is the perfect place to take the next step in her development.
“She's so impressed with Casey's style of leading and speaking to the girls,” Kromp added.
“That was one of the main reasons she said, ‘I want to give it a try. I feel so good in this relationship and I have a good feeling to go at this young age [to United]'.”
With Fuso’s terrific talent and wonderful personality, plus Stoney’s ability to manage young players so well, United fans have every reason to be excited about the future.
