Who is Michele Kang? The businesswoman investing $30 million in the USWNT

Businesswoman Michele Kang has pledged $30 million to US Soccer, which US Soccer President Cindy Barlow Cone says will “transform soccer for women and girls in the United States” and “impact generations of women and girls.” The donation is the largest ever given to US Soccer by a woman. It will ensure that every player has the chance to be seen by providing more opportunities to even more players and scaling up talent identification tools and camps.

Kang’s gift will also allow US Soccer to double the number of National Team camps, with a specific focus on funding camps for women and girls, bringing in 12 times the number of players into the Youth National Team scheme and giving access to 100,000 female players. This isn’t Kang’s first time investing in soccer. The American businesswoman has experience investing in women’s sport globally, and has said : “Women's sports have been undervalued and overlooked for far too long.

” Who is Michele Kang? Kang made her money in healthcare IT and only became interested in soccer after she attended a reception to celebrate the US Women’s National Team winning the 2019 World Cup. Before this, Kang says she “didn’t even know who Messi was.” This reception was where Kang first learned about the professional women’s league and the club Washington Spirit .

Kang joined the club’s ownership group the next year. Kang says she is “committed to raising the standard of excellence in women's soccer - both on and off the pitch,” helping women athletes to “reach their full potential.” In line with this, Kang pursued majority and controlling ownership of Washington Spirit after reports of alleged abusive behaviours by coach Richie Burke and became the first woman of color to be the majority owner of an NWSL club in March 2022.

What other teams does Michele Kang own? In December 2023, London City Lionesses announced that Kang had acquired the independent women’s soccer club, with plans made for new training centres and ex-Paris Saint-Germain coach Jocelyn Prêcheur hired. The club’s opening match of the 2024/25 Women’s Championship drew record attendance. The businesswoman also became majority owner of French women’s side Olympique Lyon Féminin in 2024, with the proposed deal reportedly valued at $54.

4 million. Kang said about the team : “The training center is perfect, but the infrastructures are mainly put at the disposal of the men’s team. The women’s team’s training center isn’t at the needed level.

Our players deserve more.” She added that: “Women's football is a business that can be profitable. We have the best players in the world.

We are fighting to create the best leagues.” READ MORE: Whoopi Goldberg announces launch of groundbreaking global 247 women's sports network AWSN Michele Kang and women's sports Kang is aware of the challenges women’s sports on all levels are facing, and it is with that that she launched a non-profit venture called Kynisca Innovation. The aim of Kynisca is to “unlock female athletic potential” through training and education, inspired by the fact that only “6% of sports science data is focused exclusively on women.

” “I want the next generation to compete on an equal playing field,” says Kang of her investments. She also says she hopes the investment made in US Soccer “serves as ‘seed capital’ and spurs other donors to follow suit.” Kang expects it will take some time for football’s workforce to gain more women coaches, owners, investors: “If you think about the legal profession, women were not even allowed to go to law school at some point.

So they had to admit females to law schools before you can have partners at law firms. It takes time, right?” Emma Hayes and the UWSNT Kang’s investment in US Soccer is going towards an already intimidating set-up. The USWNT is the most successful team in modern women’s football and has been a dominant force in the game since the early 1990s.

They won this year’s Olympics , alongside four other Olympic golds and four Women’s World Cups. USWNT Head Coach Emma Hayes said the donation “will change the trajectory of the sport. We're in a pivotal moment for soccer in the US and this will help us support more female players, coaches and referees in the game.

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