let me start this by explicitly stating that i dislike michelle kang as much as the next person. i am absolutely not a fan of the multi-club, corporate-like structure she is building, and i have zero interest in backing london city as a club. nor am i doing this to ‘defend’ alexia’s choice, i’m literally just giving my rambling thoughts as a fan of women’s football who wants to see it grow.
along with everything said during that long ass panel, the NY-times article reads to me as incredibly interesting and insightful. as much as people are unhappy with the move for understandable reasons, i have a lot of appreciation for alexia's perspective and the future of this sport.
people speak a lot about how she tries to control her image and whatever, but i don't want to get into that because ultimately we have no way of knowing. i don't believe any of that because she’s someone who has always stayed true to herself and her views, so i will continue to take things at face value. as for what she's said about the champion's league, well, that's for another time. the article mentions that there is a reputational risk for that matter, but only time will tell.
the article clarifies that she is far from the top-paid star in women's football (on salary alone, that is); she completely bypassed the massive easy money she could have gotten by chasing a payday elsewhere, as many people have claimed and slandered her for. instead, her motivation is explicitly about wanting to test herself in what's almost undeniably the most competitive league in europe, as well as more importantly elevating women's football further than what she already has done.
it’s also mentioned that she apparently came shockingly close to leaving last summer for PSG, which just proves to me she’s been needing a specific kind of personal and professional reset for a while. obviously she said she emptied herself at barcelona in the end and wanted to pass the baton to the younger generation, which is something to be admired in itself.
but now that she has moved away from the pressures of barcelona, she isn’t stepping down. she is redirecting that competitive fire into building the future of the game.
by choosing this environment (where yes she is still the star and will probs be the face and possibly even captain) she has freed herself up to focus entirely on the positives of growing the sport. she’s using kang’s line of ‘women’s football is not a charity’ to set the standard for what the next chapter is about.
for the biggest player in the sport to deliberately choose a project where she can use her leverage to help build a sustainable professional infrastructure for the sport is not to be dismissed. it is massive. she is using her status to prove that the women’s game should not be pitied, should not be treated as an afterthought or second-best to the men’s side.
and yes, there is the business side to all of this, but let’s be realistic. we have to look at the reality of this industry of sports too. women’s football has historically offered almost zero career longevity, and many athletes from sports in general have struggled in the aftermath of their playing career because the system (especially in women’s football which doesn’t have a lot of money) simply didn’t protect them. yes, this is a very calculating business move on her part, and the way this whole thing has been announced (aka the panel with kang, and the wgolazo interview where her logo is advertised alongside kang’s) doesn’t exactly shy away from that. but i struggle to find the issue with that. she is not the sole beneficiary of it. by doing this, she is securing her future and building her brand as a whole, whilst also setting a precedent for player security that women’s football desperately needs and growing it at the same time. it’s not an act of selfishness but an act of giving back to the sport which has gotten her to this point anyway.
strictly in terms of what alexia is doing for the trajectory of women’s football, this move is a masterclass in an athlete knowing her worth and using her power to elevate the sport far beyond what she’s already done for it. it is not wholly free from evil, and the multi-club model still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but the gravity of it shouldn’t be downplayed. it is the most groundbreaking thing to happen in modern day women’s football. i’m excited to see what comes of it.
(i just hope it’s carried out a lot better than that shit live stream)
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