Ji So-yun likely to leave WK League for Seattle Reign: Reports

Korean national team top scorer and Chelsea legend Ji So-yun is set to sign with U.S. club Seattle Reign, according to reports Tuesday.

Ji So-yun, center, scores for Suwon FC Women in the first round of the WK League Championship against the Incheon Hyundai Red Angels at Suwon Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi on Nov. 19, 2023. [NEWS1]

Korean national team top scorer and Chelsea legend Ji So-yun is set to sign with U.S. club Seattle Reign, according to reports Tuesday.

Ji, who is the highest scoring Korean national team player of all time for either or men’s or women’s team, is set to join National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club Seattle on a “lucrative deal,” according to Korean newspaper Sports Chosun.

Neither the club nor player have confirmed the move as of press time Wednesday.

If true, Ji would arrive in Seattle after playing just under two years with WK League side Suwon FC Women. She joined the club in May 2022 from Chelsea, voluntarily abandoning a highly-successful Women’s Super League career in order to try and raise the quality of domestic football in Korea ahead of last year’s World Cup.

Ji, now 32, debuted with Chelsea in 2014 and went on to win both Player of the Year and PFA Players' Player of the Year.

She made over 200 appearances for the London club, scoring 68 goals across all competitions with 37 in the Super League. When she left in 2022, Ji was tied for fifth in the all-time ranking for assists in the Super League, at 29.

Over those eight years, Ji won six Super League titles, three FA Cups, one community shield and two Continental Cups. She was the first non-British player to pass 100 and 200 Super League appearances and is still recognized as one of the best international players ever to play in the British league.

But Ji voluntarily left Chelsea in order to focus on the national team ahead of the World Cup, where Korea finished fourth in Group H with two draws and a loss, and the domestic WK League. The decision to leave, if true, could be seen as an indictment of the local league and its failure to modernize in line with women’s football around the world.

While women's football is enjoying a huge boost in popularity globally, it still often remains an afterthought here in Korea.

In Britain the Super League signed the biggest broadcast deal ever globally in women's football in 2021, with games appearing on Sky Sports and the BBC and stadiums quickly starting to fill up.

Over in Barcelona, the women's team pulled in 92,000 fans to Club Nou when they beat Wolfsburg in a Champions League final in 2022, more people than the men's Barcelona team had managed to attract all season.

In the United States, one of the early champions of the women's game, the men's and women's national teams agreed to equally split all prize money from their respective World Cups, neatly sidestepping FIFA's unequal prize pool at the two tournaments.

But while these steps toward sporting equality continue around the world, women's football rarely makes headlines in Korea and the WK League, which is still only a semi-professional league, is almost completely ignored. Games start in the middle of the afternoon on weekdays, shutting the door on any fans who have jobs to go to.

Korea’s WK League also lacks a second tier, taking away the threat or promise or relegation and promotion, and therefore sucking the competiveness right out of the competition. National team head coach Colin Bell has specifically blamed that set up for his team’s inability to stay competitive across 90 minutes or through an entire competition.

If it comes to pass, a move to Seattle would help Ji get her career back on track after two quiet years in the WK League. It should also be seen as yet another warning sign of the state of the women’s game in Korea.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]