Y. Michele Kang did not expect to be in the world of soccer. As the founder and chief executive of the health care company Cognosante, she had already gained the status of a reasonably successful businesswoman. However, when her friends mentioned Lionel Messi, a renowned soccer player and icon in the sport, Ms. Kang did not know who he is. This sparked an interest in the sport for her, and once she dug deeper into women’s soccer, she learned about the abuse and toxicity lying beneath the surface. She said, “I don’t think I’ve been as passionate about anything as I am now about women’s soccer.”
In March 2022, Ms. Kang became the first woman of color to become a stake controller in a National Women’s Soccer League team by buying the Washington Spirit. This was not without struggle, as Richie Burke, former coach of the team, was alleged to have abused some players, but did not want to give up his position. Now in 2023, Ms. Kang is set to not only own the Washington Spirit, but the major French club Olympique Lyonnais as well, which would make her the first woman to own and lead a multiteam soccer organization. However, she still faces questions about how much authority she has over her teams.
According to the New York Times, such questions include, “Who knew of abuse and turned the other way? How do you build a new culture from the ground up?” Her response to those inquires lies on equal parts in investments and trust. The Washington Spirit soccer team had fostered a toxic workplace for the staff and the players before Ms. Kang arrived, and she is attempting to right those wrongs. She says on behalf of her players, “there is a little bit of a sense of trust and comfort and familiarity that I am very glad to provide so that they feel comfortable coming up to me and talking to me about any issues.”
The Spirit players were heavily verbally and physically abused at the hands of Richie Burke, former owner of the team, and despite them demanding Ms. Kang to become the new owner, it would take months for that to happen. The players in a letter to Steve Baldwin, chief executive of the team at the time, wrote, “Let us be clear. The person we trust is Michele. She continuously puts players’ needs and interests first. She listens. She believes that this can be a profitable business and you have always said you intended to hand the team over to female ownership. That moment is now.”
Originally from South Korea, Ms. Kang was raised in a household where education was the one of the highest values. She recalled her father saying, “There is nothing I couldn’t do that the boy next door could.” Once she started studying business and economics, she realized that her dreams in those fields could come true if she headed to America, and that is exactly what she did. She earned a degree in economics from the University of Chicago and then a master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. After taking 30 years to build up Cognosante, a multimillion-dollar company, her business success led to her being invited to join the Spirit’s ownership group in 2019.
Ms. Kang’s influence in women’s soccer grew quickly with the spike in popular interest in the sport. For example, others have helped recently establish the new Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles, with the help of a group consisting of actors and other athletes.
“I give full credit to people who carried the teams. But it was being viewed as a charity or a nonprofit, and business disciplines were not applied from where I stand,” remarked Ms. Kang when talking about previous N.W.S.L team owners. She wants professional women’s soccer to receive more attention, and so far in recent years, that has been coming true. However, women’s soccer has undergone many changes in team ownerships and the general management of clubs worldwide.
Now speaking like a student, Ms. Kang is eager to explore new possibilities for her team, something that makes her more popular and trustworthy among her staff and players. “We don’t feel that women are small men. We are not going to borrow a manual from the men’s soccer team. We want to understand women’s physiology and biology and train our athletes according to that,” Ms. Kang believes.
She has hired more experts to develop programs that could better train her soccer players. “There’s no reason I should only do that for the Spirit. And frankly, to do that for one team is a real significant investment,” says Ms. Kang. The path is not straightforward, but “it’s not rocket science.”
In March 2022, Ms. Kang became the first woman of color to become a stake controller in a National Women’s Soccer League team by buying the Washington Spirit. This was not without struggle, as Richie Burke, former coach of the team, was alleged to have abused some players, but did not want to give up his position. Now in 2023, Ms. Kang is set to not only own the Washington Spirit, but the major French club Olympique Lyonnais as well, which would make her the first woman to own and lead a multiteam soccer organization. However, she still faces questions about how much authority she has over her teams.
According to the New York Times, such questions include, “Who knew of abuse and turned the other way? How do you build a new culture from the ground up?” Her response to those inquires lies on equal parts in investments and trust. The Washington Spirit soccer team had fostered a toxic workplace for the staff and the players before Ms. Kang arrived, and she is attempting to right those wrongs. She says on behalf of her players, “there is a little bit of a sense of trust and comfort and familiarity that I am very glad to provide so that they feel comfortable coming up to me and talking to me about any issues.”
The Spirit players were heavily verbally and physically abused at the hands of Richie Burke, former owner of the team, and despite them demanding Ms. Kang to become the new owner, it would take months for that to happen. The players in a letter to Steve Baldwin, chief executive of the team at the time, wrote, “Let us be clear. The person we trust is Michele. She continuously puts players’ needs and interests first. She listens. She believes that this can be a profitable business and you have always said you intended to hand the team over to female ownership. That moment is now.”
Originally from South Korea, Ms. Kang was raised in a household where education was the one of the highest values. She recalled her father saying, “There is nothing I couldn’t do that the boy next door could.” Once she started studying business and economics, she realized that her dreams in those fields could come true if she headed to America, and that is exactly what she did. She earned a degree in economics from the University of Chicago and then a master’s degree from the Yale School of Management. After taking 30 years to build up Cognosante, a multimillion-dollar company, her business success led to her being invited to join the Spirit’s ownership group in 2019.
Ms. Kang’s influence in women’s soccer grew quickly with the spike in popular interest in the sport. For example, others have helped recently establish the new Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles, with the help of a group consisting of actors and other athletes.
“I give full credit to people who carried the teams. But it was being viewed as a charity or a nonprofit, and business disciplines were not applied from where I stand,” remarked Ms. Kang when talking about previous N.W.S.L team owners. She wants professional women’s soccer to receive more attention, and so far in recent years, that has been coming true. However, women’s soccer has undergone many changes in team ownerships and the general management of clubs worldwide.
Now speaking like a student, Ms. Kang is eager to explore new possibilities for her team, something that makes her more popular and trustworthy among her staff and players. “We don’t feel that women are small men. We are not going to borrow a manual from the men’s soccer team. We want to understand women’s physiology and biology and train our athletes according to that,” Ms. Kang believes.
She has hired more experts to develop programs that could better train her soccer players. “There’s no reason I should only do that for the Spirit. And frankly, to do that for one team is a real significant investment,” says Ms. Kang. The path is not straightforward, but “it’s not rocket science.”