Michele Kang Adds to Her Multi-club Women’s Soccer Portfolio

A burgeoning professional sports team owner has tripled her portfolio this year.

Michele Kang, owner of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and the top-flight French soccer club Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (Lyon), just completed a deal to purchase the London City Lionesses, a second-division English club that competes in the Barclay’s Women’s Championship league.

In 2022, Kang paid a then-record $35 million for the Spirit; and earlier this year the Korean-American businesswoman bought a majority stake in Lyon that valued the club at $50 million. Financial terms of Kang’s deal for the Lionesses are not available.

Kang’s sports investments now reside under the banner of the OL Groupe, which was formed at the same time as the Lyon deal and which now claims to be the first multi-club football organization owned and led by women.

London City was formed in 2019 after the women’s team, formerly known as the Millwall Lionesses, broke away from their male counterparts and competed as a new independent team. Millwall FC currently competes in the second-tier EFL Championship. 

Kang’s investment will be much-needed for London City, which is currently 9th in the 12-team Women’s Championship and plays its home matches at the 4,100-seat Princes Park in Dartford, Kent, England, home of sixth-tier, semi-pro side Dartford FC.

Before buying the Spirit last year, the 64-year-old Kang founded the medical technology company Cognosante, of which she remains CEO. She was also previously a partner at the global professional services firm Ernst & Young.