Kang Says London City’s New Training Base Will Redefine Women’s Football

Michele Kang has made another bold statement in women’s football: London City Lionesses’ planned training centre will not just be elite, but potentially better than most facilities used by Premier League clubs. For Kang, the project is about more than one team. It is about changing what is considered normal for female athletes.

A training ground built for women, not adapted for them

Kang told BBC Sport that the purpose-built centre is expected to open within the next year, with the design focused entirely on women’s football. She said the aim was to create a space “dedicated to them, built and designed for them,” rather than one borrowed from a men’s setup and modified after the fact.

Her ambition is clear. Kang believes the facility, once completed, will be “better than with the majority of Premier League men’s teams training centres,” according to an architect who has already worked on several top-flight projects. That is a powerful claim, but it also reflects the scale of investment now being poured into London City.

Over the summer, the club strengthened its playing squad with major signings, including two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas. The new training base is the next step in a wider push to build a women’s club capable of competing at the highest level on and off the pitch.

Why Kang says the gap is indefensible

Kang’s comments were driven by a simple question: why should girls and women accept a second-class football experience when the sport is the same? Her message was direct and forceful.

“How could you possibly accept the notion that your girls, your daughters, granddaughters, sisters are treated as second-class citizens where in the same sport the boys go to play as if it’s their birthright?” she said.

She argued that women have too often been treated like “small men,” rather than athletes with different physical needs, injury profiles and development requirements. In her view, better facilities are not a luxury. They are a basic requirement for performance, recovery and long-term success.

“We have to take care of our female players better so that they can train, perform, and thrive as female athletes, not small men,” Kang added. “You drive your boy to a state-of-the-art training centre and then, if you’re lucky enough to have a facility nearby, you drive your girl somewhere else. Why would you accept that?”

From personal experience to wider purpose

Kang traced part of her belief to her upbringing in South Korea and the influence of her father. Growing up in a traditional society, she said she was taught early that effort and ambition should not be limited by gender.

She described her father as someone who told his daughters that they could pursue anything they wanted, as long as they gave it everything they had. That lesson, Kang said, has stayed with her throughout her career and shaped the way she invests in women’s football today.

“I’m grateful that I achieved my American dream,” she said. “And this is my way of giving back.” For Kang, that means creating an environment where young girls do not have to worry about broken equipment, poor changing spaces or training in public parks simply because they are female athletes.

Health, science and the female athlete gap

The new training centre is also expected to support research into female athlete health, an area Kang believes has been badly underfunded for decades. She pointed to injury trends as one example, noting that ACL injuries occur significantly more often in female players than in male players.

“There are more ACL injuries among female players,” she said, adding that roughly “94% of all science medical research is dedicated to men.” Her argument is that the lack of attention has left major gaps in the understanding of the female body in sport.

That research focus could become one of the project’s biggest long-term contributions. If the club can link elite facilities with medical and sports science work tailored to women, the impact may stretch well beyond London City’s own results.

A model Kang wants to export worldwide

Kang’s vision is not limited to one club or even one continent. Through her multi-club ownership model, which already spans England, France and the United States, she wants the standards set at London City to become a template for the wider game.

She said she would like to own teams in Asia, Africa and South America so that girls in those regions can see world-class women’s football infrastructure in their own backyard, not just on television. That global ambition is rooted in a simple idea: opportunity should not depend on geography.

London City’s identity as an independent women’s club is also central to Kang’s thinking. She believes women’s football does not need only one model, where teams are linked to men’s clubs. Instead, she wants to show what can happen when a club is built entirely around women’s football.

“Invest,” Kang said when asked what message she would send to the rest of the Women’s Super League.

That one-word answer summed up the entire interview. For Kang, investment means facilities, research, players and belief. If London City’s project delivers what she expects, it could become one of the clearest examples yet of how women’s football changes when it is treated as a priority rather than an afterthought.

The message from Kang is not subtle. The gap between girls’ and boys’ football journeys, she believes, is indefensible. And she wants that gap to disappear.