Putellas sparks mindset shift as London City prepare to host Manchester City

Alexia Putellas’s Ballon d’Or win on Monday has altered the mindset at London City ahead of their WSL meeting with Manchester City at Hayes Lane, Bromley on Sunday, the club chief executive Martin Semmens said on Thursday. Semmens added that the club’s Instagram page had generated 34m hits since Putellas won the Ballon d’Or and described the forthcoming match as "awesome for the WSL".

London City are third in the top flight, two and a half years after finishing eighth in tier two, and are owned by the businesswoman Michele Kang. Putellas is a World Cup winner with Spain and a four-time European champion with Barcelona; the club highlighted her social reach, noting she has 3.7m Instagram followers. The fixture will feature two clubs who between them have seven of the top 30 players in the Ballon d’Or rankings, according to the club’s preview.

The arrival of Putellas has driven commercial momentum at the club, which says it has secured what it claims is the largest front-of-shirt sponsorship deal in the women’s game with Nike. The club stated that the agreement is worth more than the new NWSL franchise Atlanta’s sponsorship of $4m (£3m) a year. Semmens said: "Her impact on our commercial business is extraordinary." He added: "From a leadership point of view, she allows us to start thinking about really winning. The environment today feels like it can beat Man City on Sunday and that’s a lot down to her."

Semmens, the former Southampton chief executive, described the path to signing Putellas, who had been at Barcelona for 14 years. He recounted that the initial exchange was: "Wait until I’ve finished winning a Champions League with Barcelona, and then we’ll have a conversation," which the club respected but felt she might join. Semmens said: "I think she had bought into four or five significant things. One, that we are independent, we’re a women’s-first environment. [Two] there’s a lot of power in coming to London, as a city. The WSL is important – people see WSL as the growth brand. And, after that, Michele had an unbelievably massive impact [on Putellas’s decision]. Alexia said to me: 'Well, she said she was going to do all this stuff and she’s done it. So I want to be part of that.'"

Concerns have been raised about the club’s recent spending after London City recorded an operating loss of more than 10 times their revenue for the 2024-25 season, when they won promotion as second-tier champions. The league has introduced salary cap rules stating no club’s player wage bill can exceed the following figures combined: 80% of revenue, plus up to £4m or a further 25% of revenue (whichever is higher). Semmens noted that last season, when London City finished sixth, the league’s handbook said no punishments would be dished out for any breaches for that campaign only, and warned that from this term points deductions could apply, making increased commercial revenue imperative. On compliance he said: "We are 100% within the rules, we will always be," and added: "The [salary cap] rules were set up with a clear understanding that they wouldn’t come until this year. The handbook is 100% clear. We want to see investment coming into the women’s game. Anything that kind of restricts positive and good investment obviously worries [me] but there is a need for rules and we’re 100% fine with that. We are super-transparent. We can reassure the fans that we are financially viable, sustainable, and we’ve made serious investments over the last two years to be profitable and successful in the future."

Questions have also been raised about European eligibility because Kang also owns OL Lyonnes, the record eight-time European champions in France. Semmens said the issue can be managed: "One hundred per cent, it can be resolved. We will continue to argue the case that you should be able to [invest into multiple clubs] to see the women’s game accelerated. "It’s not about exchanging players like the men’s game. It’s not about one club dominating and the other being a feeder club. It’s a different model but we fully understand and respect the rules. Therefore, we will set ourselves up in a way where we’re allowed to and can compete in Europe together. There are clear rules, clear precedents in the men’s game and clear things you can do to allow both teams to flourish. We’re fully aware of that and we’ll comply with the rules."

London City sit three points behind both Chelsea and Manchester City in the WSL and Semmens said the club’s objective is to "build a squad that is consistently in the top three". He described the upcoming fixture as a global showcase, saying: "This is probably the No 1 game in the women’s game in the world this weekend. That’s what we want to be: on the map."

Manchester City will visit Hayes Lane, Bromley on Sunday in what the club and its chief executive regard as a high-profile WSL fixture.