With tennis great Serena Williams in attendance, Chelsea completed a trophy treble in an unbeaten domestic season in English soccer by defeating Manchester United 3-0 in the Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
Williams watched the match at England’s national soccer stadium in London while sitting alongside her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who announced on Wednesday he had bought a stake in Chelsea’s women’s team. It’s reportedly a 10% stake for about 20 million pounds ($26.5 million).
Ohanian is now part of a club that is the dominant force in the English women’s game, adding the FA Cup to its League Cup and a sixth straight Women’s Super League this season. Chelsea has achieved the domestic treble for the second time in five years — and did it this time without losing a game in any of the three competitions.
In an interview with the BBC, Ohanian described Chelsea's serial trophy winners as “the queens of global soccer” and said he'd try to help them become "the best team in the world and at the forefront of women’s sport.
“This will be a billion-dollar franchise one day," Ohanian said. "I hope my dollars, my pounds, can go toward that and especially back home in America. This is going to be America’s team.”
France international Sandy Baltimore converted a 45th-minute penalty, whipped in a free kick for Catarina Macario to head home in the 84th and then scored her second goal in stoppage time to inspire the victory at Wembley for Chelsea, which won the FA Cup for the sixth time — and the fourth time in the last five years.
Chelsea beat Manchester City to win the League Cup this season before becoming the first team to complete an undefeated 22-game campaign in the Women’s Super League.
The London team’s only losses in all competitions this season, its first under Sonia Bompastor, were in both legs against Barcelona in the Women’s Champions League semifinals. Chelsea still hasn't won Europe's top competition.
“We still want to be an even better team,” Bompastor said, "and we want to be one of the best teams in the world.
“That means results on the pitch, but also we want to be a model outside the pitch. We want to make sure that when young girls look at our team, they just dream of being one of our players in the future.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Steve Douglas, The Associated Press
