Javier Tebas's fair play isn't the only thing that weakens Barça's women's team.

BarcelonaFridolina Rolfö, Ingrid Engen, Lucía Corrales, Jana Fernández, Bruna Vilamala, Martina Fernández, Judit Pujols, Ellie Roebuck and Alba Caño, from January onwards, top the list of Barça's absences, to which we must add the loans from Roma to Sili, and he will continue for another season at Liverpool. Stitched by the fair play imposed by Javier Tebas's La Liga, there is not a single professional at the Barcelona club who is not affected by the cuts. In the case of the women's team, salary space is also being made to cover a good number of renewals for footballers with a lot of influence such as Mapi León, Ona Batlle, Salma Paralluelo and Graham Hansen. Claudia Pina and Cata Coll, as explained by theSport and this newspaper can confirm, they have already been renewed. The renewal of the coach, Pere Romeu, is also pending, but that is another story.

In this context of cuts – and consequently, of weakening of a squad that has only been reinforced with Laia Aleixandri –, going after Barça, the most successful model in European football in recent years with three Champions League titles almost consecutively (2020-21, 2022-22, 42 Bonmatí winning the Ballon d'Or, has become a sweet deal. One of the most powerful businesswomen in the world knows this well and that in the last five years she has fully entered the world of women's football. This is the South Korean Michele Kang, a 66-year-old businesswoman who, according to the magazine Forbes, has a net worth of over one hundred million euros and is ranked 28th in the world among businesswomen selfmade richest women on the planet. But what do Kang and Barça's situation have to do with each other?

The businesswoman, who made a career in multinationals such as Ernst & Young and Northrop Grumman before founding the Cognosante group in 2008, burst onto the scene in a big way in 2022, when she bought the Washington Spirit of the National Women's League, a record-breaking team at the time. "Until then, I barely knew Messi's name," Christophe Larcher, a journalist for the magazine, told ARA. The Team and recently published an extensive report based on a conversation with Kang. "When she began to experience the reality and dedication of the female soccer players playing in the United States, she became seriously interested in soccer, and specifically women's soccer," the journalist continues. After this first experience, Kang now controls two other women's clubs: London City and OL Lyon, renamed after the eight-time European champions.

"She's set out to invest to bring women's football into line with men's. She's created a company [Kynisca Sports International] and has acquired several others," Larcher explains. "She's not doing it out of charity, she's a multimillionaire with a business vision. She makes investments, expects a return, and treats her football teams like businesses, in a professional manner. She likes to be present," she adds. This multimillionaire businesswoman has not only bought women's teams, but also set out to save Lyon as a club and as a whole. Thus, this summer she took over a failing club. As for the women's team, OL Lyonnais, she has taken them to play at the Groupama Stadium and is building a training center for top-level players. "She wants to make Lyon as powerful as, or more powerful than, Barça in recent years," Larcher summarizes.

Former Barcelona players at the service of Michele Kang's empire

"She identified a space in women's football to enter and make her mark. So, it depends on the people she hires to maintain and grow these teams," explains Alex Ibaceta, a journalist and analyst specializing in women's football. To sign talent, Kang has gone after Barça. Former Barça sporting director Markel Zubizarreta is now the sporting director of Kang's holding company, while Jonatan Giráldez, who won two Champions League titles with Barça, is now the coach of OL Lyoness after stints with the Washington Spirit. There are also the signings of players who have ended up at clubs owned by the South Korean businesswoman: María Pérez, Jana Fernández, and Lucía Corrales at London City Lionesses, and Ingrid Enge at OL Lyoness.

All in all, Ibaceta doesn't see an explicit desire to weaken Barça. "She knows who the best in Europe are. London City haven't signed players with a certain style or studied how they fit in. Instead, with the money they have, they've signed well-known names. Above all, when a new club comes in and takes players from the great Barça, it's a coup within the world of football. In the end, [Kang] knows that in football we make players, they can't say no to you. I don't think it's a strategy to weaken Barça, but a business move. She saw a business – in this case, Barça – that needs money, and she saw an opportunity to come in and take them what they have. Like several entrepreneurs do," the journalist resolves.

Kang defines herself as a "rebel woman." "You could say that what I'm doing in women's soccer is an act of rebellion, because I challenge preconceived ideas. I, a Korean immigrant in the US, fight for young women to be treated according to their talent and merit," she explained in a recent article in the magazine The Team. For now, his project (and money) have already attracted a fair amount of talent from a financially strapped Barça.