De Silva (29) joins another former Women's Super League player, Nicole Dale as part of manager, John Bennetts new look squad and like Dale she brings a wealth of experience which has seen her captain both Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday.

Widely recognised within the game as a creative midfielder, De Silva is seen by Bennett ( pictured with De Silva ) as exactly the type of character that he wants to add to his dressing room. " Leanne is first a and foremost a winner. She has won league titles at both Leicester City and Sheffield as well as winning the Premier League cup and being invited to trail with England. We already have a number of strong characters within our group, however in both of the last two seasons the team has tended to either go through lengthy unbeaten or winless patches. What we are looking for this time round is greater consistency and bringing players with the experience and mentality of Leanne in will hopefully help us achieve that "

De Silva, who also had a spell playing in the USA for San Francisco Mad Dogs is delighted to have finally put pen to paper for the club. " I suffered quite a serious leg break and ankle ligament injury last season, so i'm keen to make up for lost time by securing regular football within an ambitious group. Derby are a club that have made huge strides off the field in recent seasons whilst on the field firmly establishing themselves within the Premier League. Everything s set up here for us to push on towards securing a place within the Women's Super League (WSL) and I am keen to help play a part in that. There are already a good bunch of players at the club and the manager is looking to add further quality to that, so there is no reason why we can't have a successful season "