London City Lionesses: Impact of Alexia Putellas on Women's Football
Martin Semmens looks like a man who has just seen the future arrive early.
The London City Lionesses chief executive leans back in his office chair, grinning as he scrolls through the latest numbers. The club’s Instagram page has racked up 34 million hits since Alexia Putellas lifted the Ballon d’Or on Monday night. It’s only Thursday afternoon.
On Sunday, his upstart club host Manchester City at Hayes Lane. Between them, the two sides boast seven of the top 30 players in the Ballon d’Or rankings. For a once-modest, independent women’s club that finished eighth in the second tier barely two and a half years ago, the scale of it all borders on surreal.
Semmens has a simpler word for it: “awesome for the WSL”.
Putellas effect: from statement signing to structural change
London City sit third in the top flight, a position that would have sounded fanciful not long ago. Inside the building, they trace that shift in ambition directly to one decision: signing the world’s best player.
“Her impact on our commercial business is extraordinary,” Semmens says. The numbers back him up. Putellas, a World Cup winner with Spain and four-time European champion with Barcelona, brings with her a global profile. Her 3.7 million Instagram followers eclipse those of established men’s clubs such as Porto. Brands notice.
Nike certainly did. London City say their front-of-shirt deal with the sportswear giant is the largest in the women’s game, worth more than the $4m (£3m) a year sponsorship secured by NWSL newcomers Atlanta. For a club that not long ago was scratching around for visibility, it is a seismic leap.
“It’s insanely big,” Semmens says. The club’s strategy has been unapologetically aggressive. Spend first. Build big. Then cash in.
“Our view on how to run this business, rightly or wrongly, was to invest first, invest in everything to make it awesome, and then the commercial deal will be big,” he explains. Waiting patiently for organic growth never appealed. Nor did relying indefinitely on the deep pockets of owner Michele Kang.
“Michele’s vision was: ‘I’m going to invest now to prove that we can bring these deals in.’ That deal allows us to kick forward, it allows us to keep investing in players and infrastructure, because without it, we’re just burning Michele’s money, which is not the plan.”
The plan needed a centrepiece. It got one in Putellas.
Winning over a Barcelona icon
Even with Kang’s money and ambition, persuading a player who had spent 14 years at Barcelona to walk away was never going to be simple.
Semmens, formerly of Southampton, remembers the first response. “The conversation went: ‘Wait until I’ve finished winning a Champions League with Barcelona and then we’ll have a conversation,’ which we loved and we respected, but we always had a feeling she would come.”
When the time came, London City’s pitch cut to the core of what Putellas wanted her next chapter to be.
She saw an independent, women’s-first environment where the club does not sit in the shadow of a men’s team. She saw London, a global city, and the WSL, a league increasingly viewed as the sport’s growth engine. She saw an owner whose promises had materialised in bricks, mortar and contracts.
“Alexia said to me: ‘Well, she said she was going to do all this stuff and she’s done it. So I want to be part of that,’” Semmens recalls.
Legacy mattered too. In Barcelona, Putellas became a symbol of a golden era. In London, she has the chance to help build something from near-scratch, to create a pathway for the next generation of players in the capital.
That, as much as the money or the stage, pulled her in.
Spending, scrutiny and the salary cap
Big ambition rarely arrives without big questions. London City have already felt the glare.
Eyebrows shot up around the WSL when the club posted an operating loss more than 10 times their revenue in the 2024-25 season, the year they won promotion as second-tier champions. The figures sounded like a warning siren in a league still trying to balance growth with sustainability.
Since then, the rules have tightened. The WSL salary cap now limits player wage bills to 80% of revenue plus either £4m or a further 25% of revenue, whichever is higher. Last season, when London City finished sixth, the league made it clear there would be no punishments for breaches during that campaign alone. From this term, points deductions are on the table.
For London City, that raised an obvious question: were they within the rules?
“We are 100% within the rules, we will always be,” Semmens insists. “It’s so important to Michele.”
He likens last season’s heavy outlay to a “start-up fund”, a deliberate front-loading of investment designed to push the club quickly into the elite. The stated goal is to be profitable within five years.
“The [salary cap] rules were set up with a clear understanding that they wouldn’t come until this year. The handbook is 100% clear,” he says. He wants to see money continue to pour into the women’s game, and anything that chokes off “positive and good investment” troubles him, but he accepts the need for guardrails.
“We are super-transparent. We can reassure the fans that we are financially viable, sustainable, and we’ve made serious investments over the last two years to be profitable and successful in the future.”
The Lyon question and Europe’s horizon
Domestic success brings another complication. London City are three points off Chelsea and Manchester City. The table says they are in the conversation for Europe. The ownership structure says the path may not be straightforward.
Kang also owns OL Lyonnais, the eight-time European champions and the benchmark club in the women’s game. Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules loom over any scenario in which both sides qualify for the Women’s Champions League.
Semmens is bullish.
“One hundred per cent, it can be resolved,” he says. He argues that investment in multiple women’s clubs should be seen as a way to accelerate the sport’s development, not distort it.
“It’s not about exchanging players like the men’s game. It’s not about one club dominating and the other being a feeder club. It’s a different model but we fully understand and respect the rules.”
The message is clear: London City will do what is required structurally to ensure both clubs can compete in Europe. The men’s game has already provided templates, and Semmens says the Lionesses are “fully aware” of the precedents and ready to comply.
A club stepping into the spotlight
On the pitch, the target is no secret. London City want to build a squad that lives permanently in the WSL’s top three, not just visits occasionally. Sunday’s meeting with Manchester City is another measure of how far they have come, and how far they still have to go.
“This is probably the No 1 game in the women’s game in the world this weekend,” Semmens says. It sounds bold. It also rings true.
A few years ago, a fixture like this would barely have flickered on the global radar. Now it features the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, a club punching its way into the elite, and a rival with title expectations of their own.
London City wanted to be “on the map”. On Sunday, in a packed Hayes Lane with the world watching its timelines, they get to prove they belong there.
