Ahead of the 2026-27 season, London City Lionesses could well find themselves in a position to compete for the Women’s Super League title. Just how did we get here?
The year is 2024, and London City Lionesses have just finished eighth in the WSL 2 (then known as the Women’s Championship). With just 25 points, they ended the season closer to relegated Lewes than champions Crystal Palace.
Yet here we are, two years on, and the club’s situation could hardly look more different. In such a short space of time, London City have gone from a middling second-tier outfit formed just seven years ago to one of the most attractive projects in the whole of women’s football.
How on earth did we get here?
Well, the key moment in the change of London City’s fate was undoubtedly 15 December 2023: the day that American businesswoman Michele Kang acquired the club.
Kang wasn’t new to sports ownership. In 2022, her 35% stake in National Women’s Soccer League club Washington Spirit turned into majority ownership. Then, in May of 2023, she took her business acumen over to France and acquired OL Lyonnes, the most successful club in Première Ligue history.
London City were promoted to the Women’s Super League the very next season after finishing top of the WSL 2. Talk about instant impact.
That promotion secured some women’s football history as they became the first-ever independent club to compete in the WSL.
That is, perhaps, the most impressive and unique part of London City’s story; they are not affiliated with a men’s team, and so they cannot benefit from the revenues generated by a men’s team alongside them. They are, in that sense, riding solo, and this is where a rich owner like Kang has really allowed them to push on.
Ahead of last season, the Opta supercomputer ran 10,000 season simulations to try and forecast how the WSL table might look come the end of the campaign. The projection had London City finishing 10th, and even gave them a 15% chance of relegation.
Despite this, their first season in the WSL was an overwhelming success. London City finished a very respectable sixth, with their 27 points taking them just one point ahead of Brighton & Hove Albion.
They weren’t at the level to even think about challenging, though, finishing a comfortable nine points behind Tottenham Hotspur who, at times, were genuine contenders for European qualification.
Halfway through the domestic year, London City made the surprising decision to sack manager Jocelyn Prêcheur. At the time, the club were sitting sixth in the league following five wins from their opening 11 matches, undoubtedly a pretty solid record as far as debut top-flight campaigns go.
Despite his strong record, it was reported that Kang and Co. made the decision based not on results, but rather to better align with their long-term vision. His replacement was Spanish manager Eder Maestre, who joined the club from Liga F side UD Tenerife.
While 2025-26 may have been strong, this season London City want more, and their transfer business suggests ambitions well beyond consolidation off the back of their previous campaign.
London City’s summer recruitment has been one of the most ambitious in the women’s game, bringing together not only significant volume but proven international quality in a statement of intent ahead of their second WSL campaign
Imagine knowing just two years ago that Kadidiatou Diani from Lyon for a fee reportedly exceeding £500,000. Diani’s career started at Paris FC. She then made the short trip to Paris Saint-Germain and enjoyed a fruitful eight years at the club before a three-season spell at Lyon.
Across her three seasons at Lyon, she was prolific as both a goalscorer and creator. Since 2023-24 in the Women’s Champions League, only Putellas (24) and Caroline Graham Hansen (23) have been involved in more goals than Diani (22 – 16 goals, 6 assists), while only Ewa Pajor (18) has scored more often. She also registered 38 goal involvements (22 goals, 16 assists) in 53 top-flight league games at the club.
London City have also recruited a new goalkeeper, with Mary Earps announced as the club’s new number one. Earps has returned to the WSL from PSG, having previously enjoyed five successful years between the sticks at Manchester United as well as spells at several other English clubs earlier in her career.
She made 53 senior appearances for the Lionesses before retiring in May 2025 with Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton taking her spot as Sarina Wiegman’s first-choice keeper.
Earps is very experienced, having played more WSL matches (188) than any other keeper. Since the league’s inaugural 2011-12 campaign, she leads the way for catches (192) and clean sheets (63). Interestingly, she and Hampton share the same clean sheet percentage of 34%.
Those four might be the biggest names for the average fan, but London City’s other three new additions look like astute signings and should not be overlooked. Rosa Kafaji has also joined the club after an uninspiring two years at Arsenal.
The 23-year-old had originally joined the Gunners as one of Europe’s most exciting prospects but failed to make it stick at the club. Kafaji spent the 2025-26 season on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion and scored two league goals.
Though it hasn’t quite worked out the way she would’ve liked in England so far, at just 23 years old, Kafaji still has plenty of time to rekindle her Damallsvenskan form. Over in Sweden, she scored 19 goals in 45 league matches for childhood club AIK before switching to BK Häcken. There, Kafaji netted a further 17 goals in 39 appearances.
These seven players will, of course, bring heaps of quality and talent to the squad, but it’s not just that. A common trend among these new signings is certainly the experience they have, with an average age of just under 29 between them.
This demonstrates a clear mindset and approach from Kang: she wants to win now. London City have struck a balance between seasoned experts and young, exciting talent.
Last season, just 24% of London City’s squad was in what are considered to be the ‘peak’ years for a footballer – between the ages of 24 and 28.
That was the second-lowest percentage in the entire WSL, with only title-winning Manchester City (23%) having fewer players in their presumed prime. At 26 years old, both Anyomi and Thomsen will fall into that category.
For many of the new faces, they bring title-winning experience, too – something that might make a big difference towards the business end of the season if Maestre’s team do end up putting together an impressive title bid.
Turning attention back to the London City squad as a whole, six players have left the club, either through sales or expired contracts, and three have gone out on loan to gain valuable experience and playing time.
Despite this, they still currently have 29 players in their squad. As per WSL rules, only 25 can be registered for the upcoming season.
This leaves them with plenty more work to do. They need to start offloading more players, either temporarily or permanently. It might be wise to slow down a tad when it comes to welcoming new faces, too – this goes not only for squad numbers, but also squad cohesion.
Last season, it felt at times as though London City were more like a squad and less like a unit. With so many fresh faces, it can always be difficult for players to gel and learn how to get the best out of each other on the pitch.
Ahead of the 2025-26 season, following their promotion to the top flight, London City signed a staggering 17 players. In terms of departures, 13 players were either transferred out or released, six were loaned to new clubs, and one retired.
To call a spade a spade, you would expect that kind of movement to be at least a little bit disruptive. With so much happening this summer too, will it be a similar story next time out?
Well, whether they can challenge for the title with a practically completely reshaped squad, regardless of the talent in their arsenal, remains to be seen.
It’s a difficult one to forecast, as no team in WSL history has ever thrown everything at a potential charge quite like London City are doing.
This is new ground for the league, and even for women’s football as a whole. Due to the nature of players having shorter contracts in the women’s game, there are always lots of players coming and going every summer, particularly as free agents. This London City approach, with so many stars joining the mix, is something different entirely.
For such a long time now, very few sides have managed to cross the bridge to join the top clubs. With what’s shaping up to be quite some London City squad, it certainly begs the question: could Kang’s club be the ones to finally break that mould?
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