Melvine Malard has a long list of reasons to be smiling. The 26-year-old French forward married in June, completed a big-money move to Chelsea from Manchester United in the summer, received a Ballon d’Or nomination and is preparing for her first taste of a London derby against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Asked what keeps her happy, she answers with a laugh: “Goals. Seriously though, it’s seeing the kids, the families, my family, in the stands. It is crazy. I love my life, I love my job, I’m happy with my wife and everything is good. I smile because of those things, because I’m happy.”
The forward still carries a childlike wonder about football being her job. She came to the game later than most, at six or seven, after trying “literally every other sport”, and says the love was instant. “Partly because it’s a team sport and I loved that you get to enjoy it with everyone in your team and then I also found I felt both strong and free when I play football,” she says. “I have to play with a lot of energy and a lot of smiles.”
Malard grew up on Réunion, a small island east of Madagascar with a population of less than one million, formerly a French colony and now an overseas department of France. She describes it as “a little island with a lot of people smiling, good life and good food”, and notes that girls did not really play football there. “I’m very proud of that; it’s a good feeling,” she says of having paved the way.
Her route off the island opened at 14, when she caught the eye of Sonia Bompastor at an under-15s match at France’s national football centre in Clairefontaine. Bompastor, now the Chelsea manager, was then in charge of Lyon’s academy, and she persuaded Malard’s mother to allow her daughter to move more than 5,600 miles. Home remains close to her heart: “Everywhere I go and wherever I think about where I’m from, I want to show where I’m from and I want to give back and just make everyone proud of me.”
Signing for Chelsea this summer was a full-circle moment, reuniting her with the manager who first plucked her from island life. Malard is quick to credit her former club, saying: “I will never forget Manchester United. They helped me make a change in my life when I really needed change.” But she wanted to be somewhere that matched her ambitions: “I don’t want to lose any time in my career. Football moves quickly and sometimes you need to make the choice that is best for your career. I think coming here was a good choice. At Chelsea, there are clear ambitions: to win the game, win the trophies and raise the level higher. That is where I need to be.”
Asked whether it was frustrating that things did not kick on after Manchester United’s FA Cup win in 2024, with a lack of club support for the women’s side widely reported, she replies: “Of course, it’s for that reason that I’m here.”
Bompastor’s pursuit was a significant vote of confidence, and Malard believes few know her better. “She knows my qualities, my energy, my personality and she knows what I need to learn and where I need to progress,” she says. She also values the presence of Bompastor’s assistant and partner Camille Abily: “They played football, they know football and when they speak with me I can’t say anything because they know more than me. That can help you progress a lot, they set the level you know you need to be at to become a legend.”
Legacy is on her mind. Having won the Champions League under Bompastor at Lyon, she wants to repeat it at Chelsea, and sees the competition as the route to immortality at the club: “I want to write my name on a new page, but not any page, a page you remember. For me, the way to do that with Chelsea is to win something the club has never won.”
Her European campaign began brightly as a substitute in the 5-2 home win over Real Sociedad in qualifying, where she came off the bench with the score at 2-2 and scored the first of her two goals 12 minutes later. She has scored on both her Women’s Super League and Champions League debuts for Chelsea. A frustrating couple of weeks out with injury followed, but she returned and scored in a 2-0 win over Birmingham, and featured in the 1-0 win over Austria Vienna on Wednesday.
Now she is looking forward to facing Arsenal. “All players want to play this game,” she says. “You train hard for these games against big teams in big stadiums with lots of fans waiting for you to play and score. I can’t wait.” Whatever happens at Stamford Bridge, the milestones keep pulling her back to her beginnings. “When I look at the little girl from that island today playing for Chelsea and nominated for the Ballon d’Or, it’s a lot for me to take in, and a lot for my family,” she says. “It gives me the motivation to continue this way and, I’m very proud of myself.”