NWSL Sky Blue FC draftee Julia Ashley is "headed to Sweden" to play for Linköpings FC this season, choosing to leave the country because New Jersey's soccer team and its owner "listened to her pleas about not drafting her and ignored them," according to Steve Politi of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. New Jersey Gov. and Sky Blue FC Owner Phil Murphy is the one "pushing Ashley overseas," as she had "serious concerns about the off-field problems about the team that surfaced in multiple reports last fall." Ashley was the "perfect choice as a cornerstone player" for Sky Blue FC after starring at a local New Jersey high school. But Ashley and her agent were "clear in the weeks leading up" to the NWSL Draft this month that she "would not, under any circumstances, play for a Sky Blue team that Sports Illustrated's longtime soccer reporter Grant Wahl called 'a disgrace.'" The team "drafted her anyway." A spokesperson for Murphy "referred all questions to the team." The "sad part" is that Sky Blue FC is "so poorly managed that a homegrown star who grew up rooting for the team" is playing overseas (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 1/25). In New Jersey, Rodrigo Torrejon reports another Sky Blue FC draftee, Hailie Mace, the No. 2 overall pick in the Draft, also has "decided not to join the team." Additionally, the team said that Ds Amanda Frisbie and Rebekah Stott "left the team." Jennifer Muller, a leader of official Sky Blue FC fan club Cloud 9, said that the team's "insistence on drafting Ashley and Mace not only cost the team better picks, but the NWSL two top players" (Bergen RECORD, 1/25).
