Michele Kang eyes new faces after London City Lionesses reach WSL
London City Lionesses and their owner Michele Kang have already begun drawing up plans for their first season in the Women’s Super League (WSL) after clinching a historic promotion on Sunday.
The Lionesses held off a comeback from Birmingham City to draw 2-2 at their title rivals and clinch the Championship on the final day of the campaign. They are the first team unaffiliated with a men’s club to reach the WSL.
US billionaire Kang, who also owns teams in Washington DC and Lyon, vowed to begin work on readying the squad for the top flight “first thing on Monday morning”.
“It’s actually going to be much easier to recruit,” she said. “A lot of top players didn’t want to join a Championship team but now we’re in WSL I think it’s going to be easier to recruit.
“We’re very, very excited. We’ve been building the team to be mid-tier WSL, at a minimum, on day one.”
Kang has invested heavily since buying London City Lionesses in 2023, signing former Manchester City and Real Madrid star Kosovare Asllani and hiring Paris Saint-Germain coach Jocelyn Precheur.
His task will be to avoid the fate of Bristol City and Crystal Palace, the two most recent teams to be promoted who both struggled to make the step up and were relegated again.
“We don’t want to have the same story, which means we need to be sure we are strong enough, and it will be tough,” said Precheur.
“I’m not naive – I know the gap is huge between the Championship and the WSL. After [celebrating] I’ll go back to work and start to ensure staff and players look at what are the priorities and what we need to be sure we can compete.”
Kang, 65, has established a London-based multi-club vehicle, Kynisca Sports, and has said she wants to own teams in every continent.