May 20 – American businesswoman Michele Kang, owner of the perennial French champions Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, has announced the team will be renamed OL Lyonnes.
Kang also revealed that the team will join the men in making Groupama Stadium their permanent home ground, having explored other mid-sized options including a local rugby stadium.
OL Lyonnes, who have won a record eight UEFA Champions League titles, will also be moving into a new training centre. The “performance campus” is being designed and built specifically for female athletes and will be personally financed by Kang.
“It’s not going to be cheap,” she said, but declined to disclose exactly how much will be spent on the new, state-of-the-art facility, which will include a statue of their captain, Wendie Renard.
“This is going to be better than most men’s teams’ training centres,” Kang said at a press conference on Monday. “It’s actually amazing the team achieved the amount of success it has with the resources previously allocated to them.”
The new name is linked to the French spelling of “lionesses” (lionnes), but with the ‘i’ swapped for a ‘y’ to reference the city of Lyon, explained Kang, who also owns newly promoted FA Women’s Super League (WSL) independent women’s club London City Lionesses and NWSL franchise Washington Spirit.
“This new chapter for OL Lyonnes is about more than a new name and logo,” said Kang, who also unveiled new branding featuring a lioness on the team’s crest. “It’s about redefining what’s possible in women’s football. Our vision is to set the global standard for excellence, ambition and investment in the women’s game.”
On their stadium search, Kang said: “We concluded that not only do our players deserve the best playing environment, our fans deserve that too. We did look at other alternatives, because we all agree, from day one, filling out a 57,000-seater stadium is not possible. For big games we absolutely have aspirations to sell out, but not all games are going to be like that.”
Kang has made significant investments in women’s soccer beyond club ownership. She has donated millions to US Soccer’s women’s development programs, including a $30 million pledge in 2024 to support youth and professional women’s soccer initiatives across America. Her foundation has also funded grassroots programs and coaching education specifically focused on advancing opportunities for female players and coaches.
OL Lyonnes won their 18th French top-flight title on Friday, defeating Paris Saint-Germain.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1747755419labto1747755419ofdlr1747755419owedi1747755419sni@r1747755419etsbe1747755419w.kci1747755419n1747755419