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Michele Kang is in the middle of an interview with the Financial Times when her banker calls: the sale of her healthcare IT company, Cognosante, which she founded in 2008, has been completed.
It is a fundamental moment in the life of an entrepreneur. But sitting in a nondescript conference room in the soccer stadium of France’s Olympique Lyon, whose women’s team Kang bought this year, the Korean-American businesswoman ditches the call in a minute.
How does she feel? “Well, if I had nothing to do and I had just retired, I might be wandering around and worrying about my future, but tonight we have a championship game and the final of the European Champions League.” [against Barcelona on Saturday]. “I’m knee-deep in a lot of women’s football business, so, frankly, I don’t have much time to think about it.”
Kang is arguably the first women’s soccer mogul. Since 2022, he has taken over three teams (Olympique Lyon Féminin, Washington Spirit and London City Lionesses) and has talked about buying more. “I tend to do a lot of things for the first time that no one has ever done,” he says matter-of-factly.
Kang aims to give her players resources equivalent to those of a men’s team: the best training facilities, performance analysts and medical support tailored to women, rather than treating them like “little men.” The challenge is how to finance it with the low income of women’s football. She decided the only way was a “multi-club model”: buy the best equipment in multiple countries and let her expert staff serve them all.
“I saw the potential of women’s football as a business, just 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 are passionate, you are convinced that you have the solution and you invest without really knowing if this is going to happen. It takes blind faith to some extent, but I absolutely believed in the future. That’s how I started my healthcare business. “Everyone thought I was crazy when I invested right after the 2008 market crash.”
Kang grew up in South Korea, where there were few opportunities for female entrepreneurs. “Even if you graduate with the highest score and whatever, you would probably be an assistant teacher.” [the] president. Then, when you get married, you will be asked, voluntarily or involuntarily, to leave.”
In 1981, Kang emigrated to the United States, where he spent decades away from soccer. “I didn’t even know who [Lionel] “Messi was,” he admits. “If the US women’s team hadn’t won the World Cup in 2019, there wouldn’t have been a celebration at the Capitol and I wouldn’t have been invited to the reception. That’s where I first learned about the professional women’s league, as well as a team called the Washington Spirit.”
Discovered the abandonment of women’s football: low income and abusive behavior by the coach of the Spirit. He took over the club in 2022., hoping to primarily act as a role model for the players, hosting team dinners and offering inspiring feedback. “I do not want this [female] generation to go through what I went through, which means I always have to prove more, always spend another hour [at work]. I want the next generation to compete on equal terms,” he says.
“I didn’t know anything about healthcare when I started. I didn’t know anything about football. But if there is my secret formula it is: surround yourself with the best people, who are smarter than you. I hire the best coach, the best general manager, the technical director. If I’m going to mess with their decision making, why would I hire them?
Kang handles the business side. She has funded market research among fans to find out whether fans of men’s teams might be interested in women’s soccer. She is hopeful: “Many men have told me that it’s time for female players to receive this level of attention.”
Why hasn’t women’s football yet succeeded as a business? “A lot of people are getting impatient,” Kang scolds. English men’s professional football, he points out, is more than a century old. The National Women’s Soccer League in the US began in 2012.
She hopes the football workforce will gradually become feminized. “If you think about the legal profession, women weren’t even allowed to go to law school at one point. So they had to admit women to law schools before they could have partners in law firms. It takes time, right?
Hours after his banker’s phone call, Kang looks Lyon beat Paris Saint-Germain to win its 17th French title in 18 years. In the stands, young, laptop-wielding Lyon employees (presumably Kang’s performance analysts) bump fists.
He Groupama Stadium with capacity for 59,000 people It is only a quarter of its capacity. But Kang is not discouraged. On Saturday she will be in Bilbao, waiting for Lyon to lift its ninth women’s Champions League. “It’s not good for my heart,” she laughs. “My God, it’s not good for anyone.”