London City Lionesses: The Putellas Effect on Growth

Martin Semmens leans back in his chair at Hayes Lane looking utterly satisfied. The London City Lionesses chief executive has just been told the club’s Instagram page has racked up 34m hits since Alexia Putellas lifted the Ballon d’Or on Monday night. It’s only Thursday.

On Sunday, his upstarts host Manchester City in Bromley. Between them, the two clubs boast seven of the top 30 players in the Ballon d’Or rankings. For a team that finished eighth in the second tier barely two and a half years ago, London City’s rise borders on the improbable.

Semmens has no doubt what – and who – has accelerated it.

“Her impact on our commercial business is extraordinary,” he says of Putellas. The impact goes far beyond shirt sales and social media spikes. “From a leadership point of view, she allows us to start thinking about really winning. The environment today feels like it can beat Man City on Sunday and that’s a lot down to her.”

Putellas effect: from Barcelona icon to London catalyst

Luring a player who spent 14 years at Barcelona, won a World Cup with Spain and four European titles with Barça, was never going to be simple. Semmens, formerly of Southampton, recalls the early conversations.

“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,” he says. They waited. Quietly confident she would come.

When she finally did, it was about more than a change of scenery. Putellas, who has 3.7m Instagram followers – more than a men’s club the size of Porto – bought into a project.

“I think she had bought into four or five significant things,” Semmens explains. “One, that we are independent, we’re a women’s-first environment. [Two] there’s a lot of power in coming to London, as a city. The WSL is important – people see WSL as the growth brand.”

The presence of Michele Kang, the club’s ambitious owner, proved decisive.

“Michele had an unbelievably massive impact,” Semmens says. “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.’”

Legacy matters, too. Putellas is not just a marquee signing; she is the face of a pathway London City want to build.

“It allows her to have a legacy in the future – she will grow this club to a point where she’s creating a pathway for the next young players to come through in London.”

Nike, numbers and a different kind of gamble

The Putellas brand has already reshaped the balance sheet. London City claim to have secured the largest front-of-shirt sponsorship deal in the women’s game with Nike, worth more than the $4m (£3m) a year agreement tied to new NWSL franchise Atlanta.

“It’s insanely big,” Semmens says. The size of the deal backs up Kang’s aggressive strategy.

“Our view on how to run this business, rightly or wrongly, was to invest first, invest in the everything to make it awesome, and then the commercial deal will be big. The other way, of: ‘Let’s sit back, let’s grow a fanbase, let’s wait for the money to come’ – we don’t have the patience for that.

“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 spending has turned heads across the WSL. When London City surged to promotion as second-tier champions in 2024-25, they posted an operating loss more than 10 times their revenue. Eyebrows didn’t just rise; they shot up.

Since then, the league has moved to tighten control. New salary cap rules mean no club’s wage bill can exceed 80% of revenue plus up to £4m, or a further 25% of revenue, whichever is higher. Last season, when London City finished sixth, the handbook made clear that no sanctions would apply for breaches in that campaign. From this season, points deductions are on the table.

The stakes for getting commercial income right could hardly be higher.

So were London City inside the lines last term?

“We are 100% within the rules, we will always be,” Semmens insists. “It’s so important to Michele.” He describes last year’s outlay as a “start-up fund” and stresses that the “goal of the business” 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. We want to see investment coming into the women’s game. Anything that kind of restricts positive and good investment obviously worries [me] but there is a need for rules and we’re 100% fine with that.

“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.”

Lyon, London and the Champions League question

As London City climb the table – they sit three points behind Chelsea and Manchester City – another issue looms: Europe.

Kang also owns OL Lyonnais, the record eight-time European champions. Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules hover over any potential Women’s Champions League campaign.

Semmens is unflinching.

“One hundred per cent, it can be resolved,” he says. “We will continue to argue the case that you should be able to [invest into multiple clubs] to see the women’s game accelerated.

“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. Therefore, we will set ourselves up in a way where we’re allowed to and can compete in Europe together.

“There are clear rules, clear precedents in the men’s game and clear things you can do to allow both teams to flourish. We’re fully aware of that and we’ll comply with the rules.”

For now, the focus is domestic, and immediate. London City are not just punching up; they are talking like a club intent on staying there.

Semmens says the aim is to “build a squad that is consistently in the top three”. That ambition meets a hard test on Sunday, when Manchester City roll into a compact ground in Bromley that suddenly feels like a global stage.

“This is probably the No 1 game in the women’s game in the world this weekend,” he says. “That’s what we want to be: on the map.”

If London City beat Manchester City with the Ballon d’Or winner in their ranks, they won’t just be on the map. They’ll be redrawing it.