Tottenham Hotspur have completed the signing of Netherlands midfielder Victoria Pelova, who leaves Arsenal after her contract there ran out.
The 27-year-old moved to Arsenal in January 2023 and contributed two goals and six assists during her time in north London. Shortly after arriving, she came off the bench in the second half of the Women’s League Cup final as the Gunners lifted the trophy.
Her Arsenal career was later hampered by a serious ACL injury picked up before the 2024-25 season, which kept her out for most of that campaign. She returned in March 2025 and went on to play a role in Arsenal’s Champions League win in Lisbon. With so little time to recover fully and further fitness problems following, she never managed a steady run of games in 2025-26.
Pelova said she was thrilled to join Spurs and felt at home straight away, adding that the warm welcome from everyone and her talks with head coach Martin Ho made the decision feel right from the start.
Ho described her as a superb addition who brings quality, intelligence and elite-level experience. He pointed to her status as an established Netherlands international with plenty of domestic and European exposure, and said she knows how to handle high-pressure games. He also stressed the club’s belief that she still has plenty of room to grow.
She arrives with a strong Champions League background from four years at Ajax, where she made 84 appearances and scored 16 goals in all competitions. For the Netherlands, she has 71 caps since debuting in 2018, and has featured at the 2020, 2022 and 2025 Olympics as well as the 2019 and 2023 Women’s World Cups.
Elsewhere, Ecuador take on Germany in a decisive Group E clash, needing a result after picking up just one point from their first two games to keep their World Cup knockout hopes alive.
Germany, under Julian Nagelsmann, have already booked their place in the next round as the tournament’s top-scoring team, and they have opted against making sweeping changes to their line-up for the match.
