‘I want the next generation to compete on an equal playing field’

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Michele Kang is in the middle of an interview with the Financial Times when her banker rings: the sale of her healthcare IT company, Cognosante, which she founded in 2008, has been concluded.

It is a seminal moment in an entrepreneur’s life. But sitting in a nondescript conference room at the football stadium of France’s Olympique Lyon — whose women’s team Kang bought this year — the Korean-American businesswoman disposes of the call within a minute.

How does she feel? “Well, if I didn’t have anything to do and I just retired, I may be twiddling my thumbs and worrying about my future, but we have a championship game tonight and the European Champions League final [against Barcelona on Saturday]. I’m knee-deep in a lot of women’s football businesses, so I don’t frankly have a lot of time to think about it.” 

Kang is arguably the first tycoon of women’s football. Since 2022, she has taken over three teams — Olympique Lyon Féminin, the Washington Spirit and the London City Lionesses — and has spoken of buying more. “I tend to do a lot of things for the first time that no one has ever done,” she says matter-of-factly.

Kang aims to give her players resources equal to a men’s team’s: the best training facilities, performance analysts and medical support tailored to women, rather than treating them as “small men”. The challenge is how to fund that on women’s football’s low revenues. She decided the only way was a “multiclub model”: buying top teams in multiple countries, and letting her expert staff service them all.  

“I saw the potential of women’s soccer as a business, like men’s sports,” she says. “This is an opportunity-rich environment.” She is building the business almost from scratch, following what she calls the “Silicon Valley model”: “You’re passionate, you are convinced you have the solution, and you invest without really knowing whether this is going to happen. It takes, to some extent, blind faith, but I absolutely believed in the future. That’s how I started my healthcare business. Everyone thought I was crazy when I invested right on the heels of the 2008 market crash.”

Kang grew up in South Korea, where there were few opportunities for businesswomen. “Even if you graduate with the highest score and whatever, you would be probably an assistant to [the] chairman. Then when you get married you will be voluntarily or involuntarily asked to leave.”

In 1981 Kang emigrated to the US, where she spent decades oblivious to soccer. “I didn’t even know who [Lionel] Messi was,” she admits. “If the US women’s national team didn’t win the World Cup in 2019 there would not have been a celebration on Capitol Hill and I would not have been invited to the reception. There’s where I first learned about professional women’s league, as well as a team called Washington Spirit.” 

She discovered the neglect of women’s soccer: low revenues, and abusive behaviour by the Spirit’s coach. She took over the club in 2022, expecting to act chiefly as a role model for the players, hosting team dinners and offering inspiring comments. “I don’t want this [female] generation to go through what I went through, meaning I have to always prove more, always spend another hour [at work]. I want the next generation to compete on an equal playing field,” she says. 

“I didn’t know anything about healthcare when I started. I didn’t know anything about soccer. But if there is such a thing as my secret formula, it’s: surround yourself with the best people, who are smarter than you. I hire the best coach, best general manager, technical director. If I’m gonna fiddle with their decision-making, why am I hiring them?”

Kang handles the business side. She has funded market surveys of fans to discover whether supporters of men’s teams might be interested in women’s football. She’s hopeful: “A lot of men have told me it’s about time women players get this level of attention.” 

Why hasn’t women’s soccer succeeded as a business yet? “A lot of people are all becoming very impatient,” Kang chastises. English men’s professional football, she points out, is more than a century old. The US National Women’s Soccer League started in 2012.

She expects football’s workforce will gradually feminise. “If you think about the legal profession, women were not even allowed to go to law school at some point. So they had to admit females to law schools before you can have partners at law firms. It takes time, right?”

Hours after her banker’s phone call, Kang watches Lyon beat Paris Saint-Germain to win their 17th French title in 18 years. In the stands, young Lyon employees wielding laptops — presumably Kang’s performance analysts — bump fists.

The 59,000 capacity Groupama Stadium is only about a quarter full. But Kang is not discouraged. On Saturday she will be in Bilbao, hoping that Lyon lift their ninth women’s Champions League. “It’s not good for my heart,” she chuckles. “Oh my god, it’s not good for anyone.”