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Canadian soccer star Jessie Fleming wins league championship with Chelsea

Make it back-to-back Women’s Super League (WSL) titles for Chelsea, as they became the all-time record champion in the English game by beating Manchester City to first place on Sunday.

Chelsea beat Reading 5-0 at home to finish two points ahead of City.

It’s the first championship for Canadian Jessie Fleming, who joined Chelsea in July 2020 following a successful collegiate career with UCLA.

The 23-year-old midfielder came on as a substitute in the 69th minute of Sunday’s victory. She has played in 14 matches during her rookie season with the club, starting three of those contests and completing 84 per cent of her passes.

It is a fourth league title for Chelsea, which now has one more than Arsenal since the first WSL season in 2011.

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Chelsea is chasing a quadruple this season, having previously won the League Cup. The team plays Barcelona in the Women’s Champions League final on May 16 and is into the last 16 of the Women’s FA Cup.

Australian striker Sam Kerr scored one of Chelsea’s goals and became just the second player to pass 20 goals in a WSL season, after Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema in the 2018-19 campaign.

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Kerr’s 21 goals saw her finish as the top scorer in the league.

“This probably means the most to me out of all my golden boots,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people said I had to come to Europe to prove myself and here it is.”

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Chelsea will now set their sights on Barcelona and the Champions League Final on May 16.

This summer, Fleming will be competing at her second Olympics, as she and the rest of Canada look to follow up their bronze medal at the 2016 games.

— with files from the Canadian Press –

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