Chelsea's Striker Hunt: Key Targets Missed and Future Options
For a few weeks, it felt inevitable. Khadija Shaw, the most ruthless finisher in the Women’s Super League, was supposed to be the answer to Chelsea’s growing problem. Contract running down at Manchester City, a new era beginning under Sonia Bompastor, a gaping hole at No.9. The pieces lined up.
Then Shaw fired City to their first WSL title in a decade, sealed a league and cup double, and shut the door. Publicly. Emphatically. She was staying in Manchester. Chelsea’s Plan A vanished in a single decision.
The hunt moved on.
Felicia Schroder became the next obsession: 19 years old, 30 league goals, nine assists, a title with Hacken in Sweden and the driving force behind their Europa Cup triumph in May. A world-record bid went in. Chelsea pushed hard, sensing a generational scorer at the start of her climb.
Real Madrid pushed harder. Or at least, more convincingly. Schroder chose Spain. Another elite forward off the board.
Then came the third blow.
Salma Paralluelo, fresh from scoring twice in the Champions League final for Barcelona and now one of the hottest properties in Europe, turned down Chelsea as her contract in Catalonia ticked towards its end. Interest from the continent’s giants has flooded in; one of them will get a 22-year-old match-winner. It will not be Bompastor.
Three targets. Three rejections. All in the one area Chelsea can least afford to miss.
A blunt attack and shrinking options
Strip away the noise and the numbers are brutal. Chelsea scored just 44 league goals last season – their lowest WSL tally since 2018-19, which, not coincidentally, was also the last time they finished without the title. Expected goals data paints an even uglier picture: only Leicester City, West Ham and newly-promoted London City Lionesses underperformed more in front of goal.
Shot conversion? Third-worst in the division. Only Leicester and West Ham were less clinical.
There were reasons, and not flimsy ones.
Sam Kerr’s return from a 20‑month injury lay-off was always going to be a slow burn. Mayra Ramirez missed the entire season with a hamstring problem. Aggie Beever-Jones and Catarina Macario had their own fitness issues. Bompastor ended up shuffling pieces, using Lauren James and Alyssa Thompson through the middle when needed, square pegs in a very round, very unforgiving hole.
All roads pointed to a centre-forward being the summer priority. Many wondered why Chelsea hadn’t already acted in January, such was the visible drop-off in the final third. Shaw made perfect sense: proven, dominant, available. She stayed put. Schroder, the high-upside project, went to Madrid. Paralluelo, the remaining superstar on the market, rejected Chelsea’s offer, with her wage demands reportedly north of £1 million a year.
Chelsea’s answer, for now, has been to walk away rather than overpay. That stance may age well. It doesn’t make the search any easier.
Katoto, Banda, Leuchter: the thin top tier
So where do they turn?
One name jumps out: Marie-Antoinette Katoto. On paper, she’s exactly the profile Chelsea crave – a pure No.9, elite track record, still in her prime. She left Paris Saint-Germain last summer after a bitter exit, but she departed as the club’s all-time leading scorer, with 180 goals in 223 games. That is absurd production at any level.
Her first season at Lyon, though, never really ignited. Six league goals, one in the Champions League, and limited starts in Europe as she battled Ada Hegerberg for the central role. She signed a four-year deal, and there is nothing to suggest OL are ready to sell. One underwhelming year under Jonatan Giraldez won’t panic them.
Yet if Chelsea want a genuine headline striker, Katoto is one of the very few in that bracket whose situation is not entirely settled. She is not untouchable. That alone makes her interesting.
Beyond that, the pool of truly elite, attainable centre-forwards is shallow.
Barbra Banda has only a year left on her Orlando Pride contract, which naturally puts a target on her back. She is powerful, prolific and adored in Florida. Prising her away would take something enormous, financially and sportingly.
Temwa Chawinga? Forget it for now. She has just committed to a new three-year deal with Kansas City Current after back-to-back NWSL seasons crowned with MVP and Golden Boot honours. That is not a player a club willingly puts on the market.
Romee Leuchter, though, sits in a fascinating middle ground.
Signed by PSG in 2024, she initially played understudy to Katoto, then stepped into the starring role once the France international departed. The response was emphatic: Leuchter finished as top scorer in the French top flight, with 18 goals in just 17 starts. She’s 25, entering the final year of her contract, and still has headroom to grow.
She is not yet in the Banda or Katoto stratosphere, but she’s close enough – and, crucially, gettable enough – to be one of the most logical targets on the market for a club like Chelsea.
The Schroder route – and the Agyemang dilemma
Chelsea’s pursuit of Schroder hinted at another strategy: identify the next superstar before she explodes, pay big, and build around her. The problem is that players like Schroder are almost unique. A 19-year-old who dominates a league, racks up 30 goals, carries a side to a European trophy and looks unfazed on big stages is an outlier.
There are very few of that type. One of them is already in England.
Michelle Agyemang, 20, sits on the other side of the rivalry at Arsenal. An England international, she has already shown she can handle pressure, playing a key role at Euro 2025 as the Lionesses defended their crown, all while still recovering from an ACL injury. The talent is obvious; the ceiling, enormous.
Her pathway at Arsenal, however, is crowded. Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius are already in place, and the Gunners are expected to add Selina Cerci to that centre-forward group. For a young striker, those are serious roadblocks.
Would Arsenal sell to Chelsea? Realistically, almost certainly not. The move would be as politically explosive as it is technically appealing. But any top club with long-term vision will be monitoring Agyemang’s situation – this summer and beyond. If she feels boxed in, the conversation changes.
Below that level, there are other promising young forwards across Europe and the NWSL, but they come with heavier risk. Chelsea need someone who can contribute immediately, not just in three years’ time.
What Bompastor has – and what she still needs
This is not a total crisis. Not yet.
Ramirez remains at the club despite links to Real Madrid earlier this year. With Schroder now in the Spanish capital, Madrid’s need for a marquee No.9 may cool, and that suits Chelsea. Ramirez endured a miserable season with her hamstring injury, but her brief 2024-25 impact for Chelsea was outstanding, and she has already taken steps back onto the pitch with Colombia, playing twice in early June. If she returns to that level in 2026-27, Bompastor has a serious weapon.
Beever-Jones is also expected to stay, even with her contract ticking down and no renewal announced yet. James and Thompson can fill in centrally, as they did at times last season, though that’s far from ideal over a full campaign.
The lesson of last year is clear: one or two injuries can shred depth in an instant and derail a title challenge. Chelsea discovered that the hard way, watching their attacking numbers collapse and the WSL trophy slip from their grasp.
They cannot afford a repeat.
To reclaim the top of the WSL, Chelsea need more than a body up front. They need a striker who changes games, who drags expected goals into real ones, who makes the difference on the days when the patterns aren’t flowing and the pressure is suffocating.
The market is thin. The obvious targets have slipped away. The clock is ticking.
So who do they go all in for now – Katoto, Leuchter, a shock move for Banda, or a left-field gamble that nobody has seen coming yet?
