Spartan princess inspiration and a groundbreaking project: What drove Putellas to join London City | OneFootball

While all the spotlight of the football world is on the men's World Cup in North America, the USA also gave us a huge moment in women's football when Alexia Putellas was unveiled as a London City Lionesses player at a presentation in New York after 14 years at Barcelona.

Indeed, it's hard to under estimate the significance of this transfer considering Putellas' calibre: A two-time women’s world player of the year and among the leading contenders for the award again this year, Putellas won four Champions Leagues with Barcelona, ten Spanish league titles and, last season, every one of the four trophies she competed for.

A world champion with Spain, Putellas is regarded as one of the greatest European footballers in history and spent her entire career in Spanish football, also representing Levante and Espanyol. A standard-bearer for quality football, the forward saw her Barcelona contract come to an end and, after almost a decade and a half, chose to move on to London City Lionesses.

Inspired by a Spartan princess

On its official website, the London City Lionesses makes clear its inspiration in Cynisca, the Spartan princess who became the first female Olympic champion in sporting history.

The daughter of the Spartan king Archidamus II and sister of King Agesilaus II, a famous warrior, Cynisca won laurels in 396 and 392 BC. At the time, women were forbidden from competing in the Olympic Games.

But the Spartan took advantage of her status. Sparta was a much more liberal city for women back then and she did not even need to be present in Olympia for the events. She competed in chariot racing, where the winner was not the driver of the chariot but the owner of the horses.

According to many historians, Cynisca had a farm dedicated to breeding and training horses and there she prepared the team she would send to Olympia. She only managed to send her representatives after the end of the Peloponnesian War, which lasted from 431 to 404 BC.

Women were not only unable to compete; they were also not allowed to set foot in Olympia. The Olympic Games were a celebration of Zeus, while women had a different festival dedicated to Hera, Zeus’s wife in mythology.

Cynisca’s chariot won two Olympics in a row, and she became the first female Olympic champion in history. In a statue built in her honour, the following inscription was recorded:

"I, Cynisca, victor with a team of swift-footed horses, (...) declare myself the only woman in all Greece who has won this crown."

A cultural shift in football

London City Lionesses was founded in 2019 after a split from previous affiliate Millwall – London City continued with the old team's licence forcing Millwall Lionesses to begin again at the bottom.

The ideals of the new club were in place from day one, but the club’s story only changed after the arrival of Michele Kang.

Owner of Washington Spirit in the United States’ NWSL, and in control of OL Lyonnes in France, Kang bought London City Lionesses at the end of 2023 and made the club part of the group’s global network, drawing on "knowledge, technology and infrastructure", according to the club.

Michele Kang believes women’s football should not be treated as a department of the men’s game but as a sport with its own identity, capable of attracting investment and support on its own merits. Kang created Kynisca, a holding company inspired by the Spartan princess, to manage the group’s investments in women’s sport.

"Kynisca will become a pioneer in women’s performance research, so we can stop training women as if they were simply smaller men and finally unlock their true potential," Kang said in August 2024, when she announced a $50 million investment in the project.

With investment in equipment, research, infrastructure and specialists, Kang is changing the way women’s football is developed around the world. London City Lionesses won the second division of the English championship in 2025 and, in their first season in the top flight, finished in mid-table.

The structure of English football has also changed in recent seasons, with the creation of the Women’s Professional Leagues Ltd, an independent body that now runs the first and second divisions, with clubs breaking away from the Football Association.

The idea is similar to what clubs did with the Premier League in the men’s game: the teams became shareholders in the league and now make decisions collectively. The change came in 2024, Michele Kang’s first year in charge of London City.

In addition to having its own governing body, the league has launched an expansion plan and next season instead of 12 clubs there will be 14 teams in the top tier of English football. London City Lionesses is one of them, and with Putellas’s arrival it shows it intends to compete on equal terms with powers driven by the tradition of the men’s game.

"The club’s ambition and its unwavering commitment to growing as an independent, women-only club resonate deeply with me. I’m looking forward to making an impact on the pitch as we fight for trophies. Off the pitch, continuing my passion for developing young athletes, I’m equally excited to work with Michele to raise women’s football in England and on the global stage," Putellas said, with the club owner full of praise for her.

"Alexia Putellas represents the pinnacle of talent, dedication and vision in women’s football. Her decision to join our independent, women-first club is a powerful endorsement of what we are building at London City and Kynisca," Kang began.

"This is much more than a signing; it is a bold statement about the future of the sport. Together, we will compete at the highest levels while creating new commercial opportunities and development pathways for the next generation of women athletes," she concluded.