Photo credit: Trevor Ruszkowski | USA TODAY Sports
I must admit that when news first broke that Ji So-yun would be leaving the WK League in South Korea to play for the Seattle Reign, I had a reaction similar to this:
After all, Ji was the string-pulling midfield artist who brought Chelsea so much silverware across head coach Emma Hayes’ time at the club. Chelsea won five league titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and a Community Shield, and the team made a Champions League final with Ji in the center of the park.
Ji was, more importantly, a statement made by Hayes about what Chelsea was going to be. Hayes had already brought in Yuki Nagasato and Sofia Jakobsson the year before as big international signings, but Ji’s arrival in 2014 was different. Jakobsson was a No. 9, and Nagasato was a box-crashing No. 8. Hayes needed someone who could connect the two — perhaps find spaces from which neither would have heretofore considered viable to create chances. Chelsea had finished seventh in an eight-team league before Ji showed…
