Not 'ideal'? Chelsea striker Mayra Ramirez can justify British-record fee and prove doubters wrong after arriving as Sam Kerr's injury replacement

Mayra Ramirez’s arrival at Chelsea was a surprise, certainly. After the news that star striker Sam Kerr would miss the rest of the season with an ACL injury, many thought the Blues would resist the urge to dip into the notoriously difficult January market because they already boasted attacking assets such as Lauren James, Fran Kirby and Mia Fishel. They had the options to be able to cope without Kerr, right?

We’ll never know the answer to that question because Chelsea did sit down to do business, the kind of which was record-breaking. The fee which brought Ramirez to London is the most a British club has ever paid for a player in the women's game, with the criteria for add-ons expected to be met to take the total paid up to £426,000 ($537,000). That would've been a world-record fee, even, until Bay FC's eye-watering acquisition of Racheal Kundananji earlier this week.

Ramirez shone for Levante after joining the club in the summer of 2022, scoring 22 goals in 38 games, and she played a crucial role in Colombia’s historic run to the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals last summer. At 24 years old, she’s still got a lot of room to grow and develop, too, such is her potential. She’s strong, she’s versatile and she’s talented.

Yet, her arrival has come with surprisingly little fanfare and even some scepticism. Why? As Chelsea look to send manager Emma Hayes off on a high, with her to take the United States women’s national team job this summer, Ramirez is an outstanding signing ahead of the business end of the season. Indeed, it’s much more than that – she can be a star for the Blues for years to come.