The Chelsea Women’s Team Signs Its First American Player By JACK BELL Published: January 31, 2008 Chelsea has signed its first American soccer player. Not Landon Donovan, not Michael Bradley and not Jozy Altidore, but Lorrie Fair. Fair, a midfielder who has played more than 100 times for the United States women’s national team, has signed a six-month contract with Chelsea to play in the Women’s Premier League in England. She will be introduced at a news conference Thursday at the club’s training facility in Cobham, outside London. A spokesman for the United States women’s national team, Aaron Heifetz, said he could not recall a current or former national team player signing with an English club. In the absence of a first division women’s league in the United States, Americans have played in leagues in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden in recent years. “I’m a little jet-lagged after a flight from San Francisco, but when Chelsea comes to you and says, ‘Hey, do you want to come over?’ you go,” Fair said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “It’s an honor. This came along at the right time or else I might have gone down another path. “I am here first and foremost to hopefully help the team, which has so many good players, and at the same time, the challenge of trying to raise the profile of the women’s game in England is also a big motivating factor. “Those are the two key things that chelsea and I focused on when we talked about me coming to play. It was about what I could contribute on the pitch.” Fair, 29, said she hoped to be cleared by the English Football Association in time to play Saturday against the visiting Doncaster Rovers Blles Chelsea is in sixth place in the 12-team Premier League with a 6-4-4 record. Chelsea roster includes three senior England internationals and seven youth internationals Arsenal’s women’s team has dominated in recent years, winning five of the last six league championships. “Women’s soccer in England might be struggling in comparison to the men, but you’re talking about a country where men’s soccer is king,” Fair said. “The women’s game will never be like that. But it can get more room to evolve.” Fair played for Philadelphia in the defunct Women’s United Soccer Association (where a teammate was Kelly Smith, one of Arsenals and England’s top female players). Fair, who last played for the United States national team in July 2005, was the youngest member of the 1999 team that won the Women’s World Cup. She played in college at North Carolina. In the 2004-5 season, Fair, with Christie Welsh, Hope Solo, Aly Wagner and Danielle Slaton, played for Olympique Lyon, one of the top teams in France. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/sports/soccer/31soccer.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
I recall reading something about Chelsea trying to sign Christine Sinclair a little while back. I think among Canada's WNT, the players are all either still in School or play for Vancouver in the WUSL because Vancouver's own billionaire owner pays his women's players a living wage. I recall reading that WNT players there made $30,000 a year.