Player Interview: Yūki Ōgimi — Chelsea’s Japanese Girl

Tony Leighton profiles the Super League’s first Japanese player, who has joined Chelsea from Turbine Potsdam while her husband Kosuke, a sports psychologist, remains in Japan. Yuki Ogimi says the separation is difficult but that both agreed before marrying that their careers should continue. The pair met at Tokai University; she studied music and languages and won piano competitions before following her older brother Genki, now of J-League club Gainare Tottori, into football at six. She won the Nadeshiko L-League three times with NTV Beleza, the Bundesliga twice and the 2010 Champions League with Potsdam, scoring 88 goals in 109 games, and took World Cup gold in 2011 and Olympic silver at Wembley. Her sister Asano has moved to Potsdam and taken her number 17 shirt. She has 100 Japan caps and 46 goals.