​While the men’s World Cup in North America dominates global headlines, the female side of the game also delivered a landmark moment when Alexia Putellas was unveiled as a London City Lionesses player in New York, marking a bold new chapter after a 14-year spell at Barcelona. Putellas, a two-time women’s world player of the year and a perennial contender for the award this season, has enjoyed a storied career filled with triumphs: four Champions League titles with Barcelona, ten Spanish league titles, and last season she competed for and won all four trophies available to her. A world champion with Spain, she is widely regarded as one of the greatest European footballers of all time and has spent her entire club career in Spain, representing both Levante and Espanyol before leaving Barcelona to join London City Lionesses.
The London City Lionesses’ official materials tie their inspiration to Cynisca, a Spartan princess who became the first female Olympic champion in sporting history. Cynisca, daughter of Archidamus II and sister to the famed warrior king Agesilaus II, earned Olympic glory in 396 and 392 BCE, at a time when women were prohibited from competing in the Games themselves. Yet Cynisca leveraged her powerful status within Spartan society: she did not need to be present in Olympia to participate and competed in chariot racing, where the owner of the horses—not the charioteer—took the victory. Historians note Cynisca owned a farm dedicated to breeding and training horses, from which she assembled the team she sent to Olympia. Competition in ancient Greece was restricted by the Peloponnesian War, which raged from 431 to 404 BCE, and women were barred from stepping foot in Olympia, where the Games honored Zeus. Hera, Zeus’s wife in myth, presided over a separate festival for women. Cynisca’s horses triumphed in back-to-back Olympic contests, and she is celebrated as the first female Olympic champion. A statue commemorating her bears an inscription in praise of her achievement: “I, Cynisca, victor with a team of swift-footed horses, (…) declare myself the only woman in all Greece who has won this crown.”
London City Lionesses was founded in 2019 following a split from the previous affiliate, Millwall. The new club carried forward the licence of London City, and Millwall Lionesses were relegated to start anew at the bottom tier. From day one, the Lionesses carried forward their core ideals, but the club’s trajectory shifted dramatically with the arrival of Michele Kang. Kang, who owns the Washington Spirit in the United States’ NWSL and controls OL Reign in France, has become a transformative figure for the club, steering its ambitions toward higher levels of competition and visibility. The club’s decision to bring Putellas on board signals a bold strategic move designed to accelerate the Lionesses’ development and raise the profile of women’s football in London and beyond.