Meet Michele Kang - the woman leading a football revolution

Yahoo

08-05-2025

London City Lionesses owner Michele Kang [Getty Images]
"Our phones, and text messages, have been ringing off the hook", says owner Michele Kang with a smile.
It is 72 hours on from her London City Lionesses winning promotion to the Women's Super League.
And it is easy to see why players, who 18 months ago would have baulked at the idea of joining this club, are now desperate to be a part of its Hollywood-style story.
Kang only bought the Lionesses in December 2023, when they were on the brink of liquidation. But thanks to her huge financial investment and long-term vision, she has turned this once failing team into hot property.
"I jump in before anyone can say this is a good thing or in most cases they think I'm crazy," she tells BBC Sport. "This was not the first time I've been called crazy. But I absolutely saw the potential and with a little focus, I have never looked back".
London City secured the point they needed for the Championship title with an enthralling 2-2 draw against title rivals Birmingham at St Andrew's in front of a 9,000-strong crowd.
But if you were watching the match on television, you would have been forgiven for asking who was the glamorous woman at the heart of the team's celebrations.
Immaculately dressed in a cream trench coat and now trademark dark sunglasses, the 65-year-old Kang took centre stage at the trophy presentation, lifting it with her captain Kosovare Asllani as streamers and fizz popped around them.
Most owners usually celebrate such achievements from the directors' box. Not Kang, though.
Her approach to that moment matches her approach to how she does everything. She does it her way.
"Here we are, we made it. It just tells you that with proper investment and anything is possible," said Kang.
London City are just one part of what is rapidly becoming a global women's football empire for the wealthy American businesswoman, with Kang also owning eight-time Women's Champions League winners Lyon and Washington Spirit in the United States.
Her goal is to prove that women's football clubs can be successful and sound business investments without the involvement of a men's side. So far, no-one has been able to prove her wrong.
Kang was front and centre of London City Lionesses' celebrations [Getty Images]
While winning the Championship is an outstanding achievement, the WSL will be a huge step up for her side.
Kang insists they are not aiming to simply survive in the top flight, but to thrive.
And that is why at 9am, the morning after the promotion celebrations, her team – including manager Jocelyn Prêcheur, who she lured from Paris St-Germain and sporting director Markel Zubizarreta, who was poached from the Spanish FA - were already planning for life in the top tier.
"Our vision from day one, when we started out this journey a year ago, was building at least a mid-tier WSL team," Kang adds. "We've seen a lot of men's and women's teams get promoted and the next year they get relegated.
"So we've been trying to build a team that when we got up, we can stay there and be very competitive. We recruited players that way and staffing that way."
When asked how many players they're aiming to recruit this summer, Kang jokes those decisions are "above my pay grade".
"I do sometimes participate in convincing and persuading players to join us, but ultimately who we recruit is down to the sporting director and our manager's job," she says. "I have full confidence in them."
That said, no-one would be surprised to see a host of international stars arriving at the club's training base in Aylesford, Kent, before the new season starts in September.
Despite being in the Championship, Kang enticed Sweden internationals Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson, Japanese World Cup champion Saki Kumagai, and ex-Barcelona midfielder Maria Perez to join London City.
For Asllani, who had spells at PSG, Manchester City and Real Madrid in her career, playing under a female owner was one of the huge draws.
"For the first time, I was like OK we have a woman investing, not just talking, actually giving us all the resources we need to succeed," said the 35-year-old, who won the WSL with Manchester City in 2016.
"You need to invest for us to reach success and that is what Michele stands for. She's a power woman, she's not a talker, she's a doer."
But it is not just on the pitch where Kang has spent her money as she sees the bigger picture of what a successful team needs.
At the training ground at Cobdown Park, seven Fifa-compliant pitches are set to be ready for the players this summer. There are ambitious plans to build a performance campus, although planning permission for the proposed buildings and facilities has not yet been secured.
Talking of the proposals, Kang adds: "It's going to be the state-of-the-art training centre, better than actually many of the men's Premier League training centres."
The club plays its matches at Hayes Lane, which they groundshare with League Two men's side Bromley, but Kang says they are exploring building a purpose-built stadium for her side.
It all hints to the fact she will not settle for being just a mid-table WSL team for long - this is a set-up worthy of a team competing in the Champions League.
Kang appointed Jocelyn Prêcheur, who won the women's Coupe de France with Paris St-Germain [Getty Images]
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kang moved to the United States to study. She then made her money in healthcare and IT, with Forbes magazine placing her wealth at $1.2bn (£900m).
Her love affair with women's football has been a whirlwind. Having been invited to her first ever match at Washington Spirit in 2021, Kang instantly fell in love with the sport.
"It was cold April day, and I still remember vividly. I was mesmerised, like really totally converted," she says.
"There's something about being just at a stadium environment with the players, just the competitive spirit going back and forth, it is just absolutely the best. And I think that's really eventually what got me."
By 2022 Kang was the majority owner of the Spirit. A year later she added London City Lionesses to her portfolio before buying Lyon in 2024.
"It is a lot of fun," she admits. "I don't have my own children, but all of a sudden I have three teams and players across the Atlantic Ocean. I try to actually be at the games and support my players. That's really, ultimately, the fun part."
It may be fun, but her clubs are not charities, but businesses.
"I saw an incredible potential of where it was versus where it could be," says Kang. "The gap I thought was tremendous and I was really surprised no-one saw that, let alone investing in realising that gap."
So how do the capital's Lionesses now compete in a division and create a fanbase that already has four established London clubs in Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham?
"[Washington] Spirit will be the first one to break even because they are two, three years ahead and we invested heavily in fan development and corporate partnership," reveals Kang.
"The models and the best practice are being copied both at Lyon and London City, and the Spirit are also learning from what Lyon have done. So we're all learning from each other.
"At London City, so far our focus has been on the product, the sporting side, but we will heavily, heavily invest in fan development and building some significant fandom and engagement.
"So it will be on track and we will absolutely figure out the financial sustainability over the long term. Nothing, no sports team, no business will survive if there's no sustainability."
Kang's three clubs come under the umbrella of her Kynisca Sports International venture. But it does not stop at just investing in women's football.
In August 2024, Kynisca announced it was setting up a $50m (£39.2) global investment fund to help improve the health and performance of elite female athletes.
It was something Kang said would be "a new era for female athletic potential" and "drive lasting change".
One of the first recipients was the US rugby 7's team who were awarded $4m (£2.9m) after winning bronze at the Paris Olympics - a donation star player Ilona Maher described as "really impactful".
"She saw our value, which we already knew we had, but this was someone truly seeing it and investing in it and this is setting us up for hopefully a win in LA 2028," said Maher, 28.
Kang has also pledged a $30m (£23.6m) donation to US Soccer over the next five years, with the aim of transforming women and girl's football in America.
"She puts her money where her mouth is," former Chelsea and current USWNT manager Emma Hayes tells BBC Sport.
"Let me be clear about this, she's an astute businesswoman. She knows that women's sport is one of the areas of sport that has the opportunity to explode."
While describing herself as a businesswoman, investor and philanthropist, Kang might also be the revolutionary to raise women's football to even greater heights.
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