US Soccer: Michele Kang to donate $30m over five years to develop women's football

American Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit (NWSL), Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (Arkema Première Ligue) and London City Lionesses (Barclays Women's Championship) via her company Kynisca Sports International Ltd, will donate $30m (€28.4m) over five years to US Soccer in order to "create over 100,000 new opportunities for women and girls in soccer," announced US Soccer on 19/11/2024.

This donation is "the largest philanthropic investment in US Soccer's women's and girls programmes and the most generous donation ever made to US Soccer by a woman". It will "expand and improve talent identification, and fuel professional development for female players, coaches, and referees, fund camps for women and girls" and "help build out US Soccer's digital talent identification platform, bringing 12 times the number of players into the youth national team pipeline, giving access to 100,000 female players."

"The generous gift will also provide more professional development opportunities, including education and mentorship, to an additional 70,000 female coaches and referees, doubling the…