Getty Images/GOALThe 21-year-old played a starring role in OL's run to last season's European final and is hoping to test herself against the best again this year
It’s fair to say that Melchie Dumornay is fulfilling her potential. Four years after first appearing on GOAL’s annual NXGN list of the best teenage talents in world football, she speaks from her home in Lyon as a representative of the eight-time European champions, and just a few months after playing in her first Champions League final. Things are going pretty well.
You only have to look behind her, at a canvas on her wall, for a reminder of the huge hype that she has lived up to. On there is a picture of Dumornay holding the 2022 NXGN award, which crowned her the most talented teenager on the planet. Back then, she was playing for Reims, one of the best clubs in the women’s game for developing young players. But even before she left her native Haiti to join Reims at 18 years old, she knew where she wanted to be eventually. She wanted to play for Lyon.
Speaking to GOAL before boarding that flight to France three years ago, she knew some people at home might be disappointed that Reims was her first big move abroad, not OL or Paris Saint-Germain. “But people who know football will understand my decision,” she said. “For the other people, it's okay. I will prove them wrong in the future.”
Dumornay is certainly doing that now. Last season, she shone on the biggest stage, scoring twice in Lyon’s Champions League semi-final tie with PSG to secure passage to the final in Bilbao. There, they would fall just short in a tightly contested affair with Barcelona, who retained their title thanks to a 2-0 win. But that’s only made the French giants, and Dumornay, all the more hungry as the 2024-25 European campaign gets under way.
