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03/07 05:00 CST Multi-team owner Michele Kang looks to raise the bar for
women's soccer on multiple fronts
Multi-team owner Michele Kang looks to raise the bar for women's soccer on
multiple fronts
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Soccer Writer
Michele Kang knows the question is coming before it is even asked.
No, she never imagined she'd own one women's soccer team, let alone three. But
Kang knows a good investment when she sees it.
"I really fell in love with the game and the potential. I saw the potential
where it was and where it could be," she said. "I am just grateful for this
opportunity to be a catalyst and sort of a match that could light a fire."
Kang owns the Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League, the
London City Lionesses in England's Women's Super League and OL Lyonnes in the
French Premier League. All three are accomplished teams, with the Lionesses
promoted last year from the Women's Championship, the Spirit raising the NWSL
championship trophy in 2021, and Lyon winning a record eight Women's Champions
League titles and 18 league titles.
Multi-club owners are not unusual on the men's side of the game: There's City
Group, which owns Manchester City in the English Premier League and a number of
other teams, and Austria's Red Bull, which owns several teams including RB
Leipzig in the German Bundesliga.
But on the women's side, it's more of a rarity, and it is certainly unusual to
own three teams in three top-tier leagues. Kang also took over as president of
Olympique Lyonnais on the men's side last year.
"My model is, because of where women's soccer is in terms of its development
relative to men's, my multi-club model is very different than the men's
multi-club. My model is really respecting each club's legacy," she said. "So it
is to really give them what they need, the basic and the important things, and
see how far they go."
Kang's influence extends beyond team ownership: She's a globe-trotting pied
piper for women's soccer. She upped the ante for big-name player signings by
luring Swedish international Kosovare Asllani to London City before the team
was promoted, and more recently helped to make sure U.S. star Trinity Rodman
re-signed with the Spirit. She's also a philanthropist who has funded projects
with U.S. Soccer that include dedicated research on female athletes to develop
best training practices and prevent injuries.
Kang enters the sports world Kang, who was born in South Korea, founded medical technology company Cognosante, which she sold in 2024. Forbes has estimated her worth at $1.2 billion. She joined the soccer world when she bought a minority stake in the Spirit in late 2020, then acquired the team outright in 2022. She acquired Lyon and London City the next year, and in 2024 put all three teams under the umbrella of her Kynisca Sports International, a women-led global sports organization. "I'm obviously excited that we were a part of her origin story," NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said. "Obviously, her first major investment was through the Washington Spirit, and I think it's fair to say she fell in love with women's soccer through the NWSL, and now she's spreading that love all around the world." Kang's influence was highlighted recently when the Spirit reached a contract agreement with Rodman. "I am incredibly grateful, and I'm very glad it's over that she's staying with a positive outcome," Kang said. "This is one of the most important contracts ever, not just for the Spirit, but for the league as well. So I was very involved and in terms from strategy to every turn, every little challenge we had." Rodman, who has been with the Spirit since 2021, became a free agent at the end of last season. The team was eager to re-sign her, but the league's salary cap was hindering the process. One agreement between the two sides was scuttled by the league before the creation of a "High Impact Player" rule that allows teams to go $1 million over the cap to sign players who meet certain criteria. Using the rule, the Spirit were able to eventually re-sign Rodman, though the rule is now the subject of a grievance by the players' union. "She believes in women's sports so much, especially soccer," Rodman said. "Just how much she's committed to us and having an owner that commits that much, you kind of are forced to like work 10 times harder, so having that support has been amazing."
More than just an owner Kang is also dedicated to the science and technology behind women's sports, recognizing the need for innovation in areas like training, performance and recovery. Relying on the practices used by men's soccer is untenable, she said, because "women are not small men." In 2024, she pledged $30 million to U.S. Soccer, the single-largest investment for women's programs in the federation's history. More recently, her Kynisca Innovation Hub was merged with the federation's Soccer Forward Program to further research and innovation in women's sports. The Kang Women's Institute was announced in December. "(We're) really kind of flipping this on its head and essentially saying, ?OK, how we always used to do things for women and girls soccer? Actually, that was a transfer from the men's game.' What does this look like if we're just starting with a completely blank sheet of paper of what's best for a female player," said Lex Chalat, head of the Soccer Forward Foundation. Kang's vision is practical: Athletes and their performance are at the core of her business. "One of the problems with women's football is that there are a lot of anecdotal little projects here and there, but nothing is done at scale. And unless you can do these types of things at scale, it's just a thousand flowers bloom and they all die and nothing happens," Kang said. "So I wanted to make sure that this is done properly at scale once. There's no reason why multiple organizations need to do this. We can combine." Kang's philosophy aligns with U.S. national team coach Emma Hayes, who said she's never met anyone quite like Kang. "It's easy to look at the dollars that are being put in by her, but actually, if you meet her and you get to know her, she's so passionate about women's football globally, and she's so determined to play a significant part," Hayes said, "not just in shaping the next direction for the women's game and leading the way with that investment, but her commitment to research, to education, to developing the insights that go back to the equity piece that is going to have a bigger impact on the broader game." ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Kang enters the sports world Kang, who was born in South Korea, founded medical technology company Cognosante, which she sold in 2024. Forbes has estimated her worth at $1.2 billion. She joined the soccer world when she bought a minority stake in the Spirit in late 2020, then acquired the team outright in 2022. She acquired Lyon and London City the next year, and in 2024 put all three teams under the umbrella of her Kynisca Sports International, a women-led global sports organization. "I'm obviously excited that we were a part of her origin story," NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said. "Obviously, her first major investment was through the Washington Spirit, and I think it's fair to say she fell in love with women's soccer through the NWSL, and now she's spreading that love all around the world." Kang's influence was highlighted recently when the Spirit reached a contract agreement with Rodman. "I am incredibly grateful, and I'm very glad it's over that she's staying with a positive outcome," Kang said. "This is one of the most important contracts ever, not just for the Spirit, but for the league as well. So I was very involved and in terms from strategy to every turn, every little challenge we had." Rodman, who has been with the Spirit since 2021, became a free agent at the end of last season. The team was eager to re-sign her, but the league's salary cap was hindering the process. One agreement between the two sides was scuttled by the league before the creation of a "High Impact Player" rule that allows teams to go $1 million over the cap to sign players who meet certain criteria. Using the rule, the Spirit were able to eventually re-sign Rodman, though the rule is now the subject of a grievance by the players' union. "She believes in women's sports so much, especially soccer," Rodman said. "Just how much she's committed to us and having an owner that commits that much, you kind of are forced to like work 10 times harder, so having that support has been amazing."
More than just an owner Kang is also dedicated to the science and technology behind women's sports, recognizing the need for innovation in areas like training, performance and recovery. Relying on the practices used by men's soccer is untenable, she said, because "women are not small men." In 2024, she pledged $30 million to U.S. Soccer, the single-largest investment for women's programs in the federation's history. More recently, her Kynisca Innovation Hub was merged with the federation's Soccer Forward Program to further research and innovation in women's sports. The Kang Women's Institute was announced in December. "(We're) really kind of flipping this on its head and essentially saying, ?OK, how we always used to do things for women and girls soccer? Actually, that was a transfer from the men's game.' What does this look like if we're just starting with a completely blank sheet of paper of what's best for a female player," said Lex Chalat, head of the Soccer Forward Foundation. Kang's vision is practical: Athletes and their performance are at the core of her business. "One of the problems with women's football is that there are a lot of anecdotal little projects here and there, but nothing is done at scale. And unless you can do these types of things at scale, it's just a thousand flowers bloom and they all die and nothing happens," Kang said. "So I wanted to make sure that this is done properly at scale once. There's no reason why multiple organizations need to do this. We can combine." Kang's philosophy aligns with U.S. national team coach Emma Hayes, who said she's never met anyone quite like Kang. "It's easy to look at the dollars that are being put in by her, but actually, if you meet her and you get to know her, she's so passionate about women's football globally, and she's so determined to play a significant part," Hayes said, "not just in shaping the next direction for the women's game and leading the way with that investment, but her commitment to research, to education, to developing the insights that go back to the equity piece that is going to have a bigger impact on the broader game." ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
