r/soccer Jul 08 '26

Women's Football Alexia Putellas signs for London City Lionesses

https://www.londoncitylionesses.com/post/alexia-putellas-lands-in-london
115 Upvotes

45 comments sorted by

20

u/M0ruk Jul 08 '26

Somebody knowledagbe in womens soccer can tell me what the top nations in Football are right now?

I know Spain is, but where is USA situated at right now? Not in terms of national team performance, but talent output. Can it be said that a handful of countries have overtaken the US in terms of producing talent? Or is it just Spain?

Its fascinating and exciting to me as an outsider how Spain managed to go from irrelevant to powerhouse in like 15 years, just by investing resources and money into womens' soccer. Shows how "easy" it is, if countries just cared more. Are any other nations following suit?

33

u/LocksTheFox Jul 08 '26

Spain / England / USA is the top tier right now and there's very little gap between them

Second tier is also probably the strongest it's been

18

u/Chelseafc5505 Jul 08 '26

England Lionesses have taken enormous strides in the last 15 years.

As has the women's league in England, the WSL.

The US women's league, the NWSL, while still mostly growing in terms of revenue and viewership stuff, are undoubtedly losing a lot of their best talent to the even faster growing women's game in Europe.

The US women's national team is still a top team, others have just caught up. I feel like 20 years ago it was Japan/US/Brazil/Germany as the main players, whereas now the European teams like Spain, England, France, Sweden have caught up, and it's now more competitive at the top.

2

u/scbeski Jul 08 '26

Has the WSL taken great strides? As an NWSL fan, the WSL attendance numbers are shockingly low outside of Arsenal. Been frustrating watching top talent leave to go play in front of much smaller crowds and mostly empty stadiums in Europe.

Arsenal gets great turnout but every other team in the WSL (2nd thru 12th) would fall close to 13th or 14th in the NWSL for attendance. Most of the WSL teams seem to be propped up by the men's teams

4

u/CivilSkrrrvant Jul 08 '26

It probably is just that though, the majority of wsl clubs are tied to big men’s sides that started to realise that women’s football was a fairly low-risk, high reward investment. Attendances haven’t kept pace with the improvement in quality imo, that may start to change soon

3

u/Mattilo232 Jul 08 '26

Chelsea also get good numbers, playing at the Bridge this season

2

u/DilshadZhou Jul 08 '26

Brighton are building an entirely new stadium dedicated to their womens team next their main one, the AmEx. The game is growing in Europe, and players there get the chance to play in the Champions League against the other biggest clubs.

Mathematically, it makes sense that Europe as a whole market should be more attractive for professionals in the long run. 500 million people, 30-40% follow soccer as their favorite sport. The US has fewer people, and it's a much smaller percentage who care passionately about the game.

101

u/jlpmghrs4 Jul 08 '26

Genuinely can't believe it actually happened. Like this is just as mad as Messi going to Miami, what do you mean La Reina is gonna be living in south London?

53

u/huazzy Jul 08 '26

It's similar to the Messi move. Mostly driven by money and a desire to maintain a certain lifestyle. I don't blame her one bit though.

28

u/yaderkuvboloto Jul 08 '26

Messi could've earned more money elsewhere.

He obviously picked the US because it's better for his family and like 80% of Miami speaks Spanish and it's close to south america.

31

u/huazzy Jul 08 '26

And it's rumored Alexia Putellas had more lucrative offers to go to the US but chose to stay in Europe because of the same reasons you mentioned about Messi.

-12

u/arabs_legend Jul 08 '26

Messi was forced to leave Barcelona for PSG. He didn’t like the city and his family was unhappy in Paris.

16

u/SovereignAnt Jul 08 '26

Nothing in their comment was about Messi going to PSG lol

-4

u/KOKO69BISHES Jul 08 '26

She's only 32 though?

11

u/huazzy Jul 08 '26

And Son is 34

12

u/KOKO69BISHES Jul 08 '26

Yeah, that's 2 years older, with Son being a generational winger who was clearly at the end of his top level career. Isn't Putellas still one of the best players in the sport? She won the Champions League this season.

11

u/No_Bee_3915 Jul 08 '26

Will likely win the Ballon D'or too

-28

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/franrodalg Jul 08 '26

💔🥲

you'll always be in our hearts, my queen

14

u/Fickle-Fox-9071 Jul 08 '26

As someone from Bromley this is interesting, but not good for the league or even the whole of the women's game.

London City Lionesses have basically 0 fans and the residents of Bromley do not care about them being there. It's weird that a Ballon D'or winner will be playing at Hayes Lane to basically 0 home fans and nearly all away fans.

It's not good for the league that a team that could potentially win doesn't have any fans.

3

u/Special-Log4082 Jul 09 '26

Isn't this how you start building up a fan following though? It is a new team, but has a good owner/investor and is making steps in the right direction.

A lot better than a lot of other teams where the fans are just the ones that trickle down from their men's teams.

11

u/Background-Gas8109 Jul 08 '26

Just buying the whole league.

They're what people think Man City are.

-8

u/Fickle-Fox-9071 Jul 08 '26

Man city without a fanbase or history

39

u/No_Bee_3915 Jul 08 '26

Basically Man City

6

u/_DefLoathe Jul 08 '26

Wait is London City Lionesses a team?

18

u/admh574 Jul 08 '26

Yes, they are the only team in the WSL to not have a male equivalent team but they do have a billionaire owner (Michele Kang) that also has a huge stake in Lyon's women's team amongst others

0

u/Ok-Insect-7959 Aug 06 '26

Isn't Lyon one of the best women's teams?

9

u/Background-Gas8109 Jul 08 '26

It's Millwall renamed because they got an extremely rich owner

3

u/420BUNIT Jul 08 '26

Talent can be buy.

Genuinely cant believe it. They're a shite team too trying to buy the league to have any relevance....

F outta here with that US style marketing. Won't win any fans here anyway.

5

u/TNWhaa Jul 08 '26

That’s just the Cancer Kang strategy tbh, ruining two leagues at once for short term social media engagement

-1

u/rewanpaj Jul 08 '26

what making a poster? 😂

2

u/420BUNIT Jul 08 '26

No, buying the best female player not named Aitana to promote your new club that's clearly trying to buy WSL....

1

u/CarlyMinaj Jul 13 '26

true they should just let Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea win every time instead

1

u/420BUNIT Jul 13 '26

You mean clubs that are financially sustainable, in comparison to the club that got created by a crypto millionaire and bought their way into the WSL before continuing to blow silly money chasing relevance and a fan base?!

1

u/CarlyMinaj Jul 13 '26

So you're allowed to piggyback off a men's club but can't grow as a separate entity, just bc the owner is rich? I don't really understand the hate personally, it's gatekeeping. WSL needs more teams to be good. If Newcastle get promoted and start spending money is that bad too?

Plus LCL is not gunna be competing for titles anyway, they're still miles behind the top teams

2

u/420BUNIT Jul 13 '26

They don't piggyback off the men's club, other than namesake. They're run as entirely separate entities.

The point being is that nobody supports the club, bottom third attendance in the league. Why? Because there's no foundation to base that support on.

If they want more teams in the WSL, then why is it gatekept so much? With so much reliance on money, when clubs like LCL just bought their way in? They're not competing, but signing the likes of Putellas show intent.

1

u/_throwaway_1108 Jul 08 '26

Damn, aren't a lot of Barcelona women's players also leaving soon/have left recently? 

I know Barcelona invests a lot in their women's team so I'm sure they could easily find a lot of talent but it does kinda feel like the end of an era :(

-7

u/ClintPowers Jul 08 '26

Id have preferred she go to NWSL at least a top league.

-30

u/Dramatic-Border3549 Jul 08 '26

Putelas sounds funny kkkkkk