Barça and Lyonnes will fight this Saturday in Oslo to reclaim the European throne. The blaugrana lost it last year after falling in the Champions final against Arsenal. The French team, on the other hand, hasn’t won since 2022, but with eight trophies in their showcases, they remain the queens of Europe. And if there is someone determined to dethrone Barcelona, it is Michele Kang.
The empire that the South Korean billionaire businesswoman is building threatens to end Barça’s hegemony in Europe. While at FC Barcelona financial fair play forces tightening the belt and opens the door to the departure of important players every year, Kang’s empire, built with a checkbook, tries to take advantage of it to dismantle its great rival in Europe. So far, she has ‘stolen’ from the blaugrana team their coach (Jonatan Giráldez), their sporting director (Markel Zubizarreta), and four players for the different teams of her multi-ownership conglomerate.
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With a personal fortune of around 1.2 billion dollars, according to Forbes, Kang made the leap from the pharmaceutical sector to women’s football in early 2022, when she acquired the Washington Spirit of the NWSL for about 35 million dollars. She was one of the first to see the enormous potential of this sport, and time has proven her right. By mid-2025, the American team was already valued at 130 million.
In 2023, she made the leap to Europe by buying the then-called Olympique de Lyon and, months later, the London City Lionesses, strengthening her threat to the rest of the teams.
Together with Markel Zubizarreta, architect of the champion Barça, they form a lethal alliance
Barça began to ‘suffer’ her in January 2024, when the signing of Jonatan Giráldez was announced, who at that time was coaching Barça, as the new coach of Washington Spirit starting the following season. A departure not without controversy. “It will not be Europe,” said the Galician coach about his future team before revealing his new destination: “It is important for me not to compete against Barça. The club is above everything.” Less than two years later, he will play none other than a Champions final against the blaugrana. This week he clarified his words: “For confidentiality reasons, I could not say the name of the team. I said that [the Lyonnes] would not be my next destination, it was taken out of context and the headline was manipulated.”
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After Giráldez, in August of that same 2024, the final blow came with the incorporation of Markel Zubizarreta as sporting director of her entire conglomerate. The architect of the champion Barça, who had left the club in September 2023, joined Kang after a brief stint at the Spanish Federation to form one of the most lethal alliances on the continent.
With a personal fortune of 1.2 billion dollars, she is one of the richest women in the United States
With him in the offices, the first signings from Barça began to arrive. The first was María Pérez to London City Lionesses, in summer 2024. The English team achieved promotion to the First Division in its first year and last summer incorporated two great Barça gems like Jana Fernàndez and Lucía Corrales. At OL Lyonnes, named so by Kang from this season with the intention of creating a distinctive brand for the women’s team, away from Olympique de Lyon, Jonatan Giráldez arrived in summer, leaving his American subsidiary, and the Norwegian Ingrid Engen, to the surprise of all Barça fans.
This Saturday, Kang wants to win her first Champions with Lyonnes, who have not lifted the trophy since 2022. These have not been the easiest years for the French team, but the South Korean businesswoman has put all her resources into returning the team to the top, raising their budget to 16-20 million euros and strengthening with signings like Ashley Lawrence or Marie-Antoinette Katoto, in addition to Engen. But the threat to Barça will not only be in Oslo, nor in Lyonnes. Michele Kang’s tentacles extend further, and this summer they are set to be protagonists of the big market moves with Alexia and Mapi León in the spotlight.
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