LOS ANGELES WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM

In the last few games with the public of Los Angeles FC, the second Los Angeles men’s soccer team, among the spectators there was widespread support for a cause initially promoted by some fans: to bring back a professional women’s team to Los Angeles ten years after dissolution of the Los Angeles Sol, the first and only women’s football organization in the city’s history; moreover, in a country where women’s football is historically much more popular, practiced and successful than that of men.

Over the past decade, Los Angeles has been banned from the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the most important women’s professional league in the United States, established in 2012 and still ongoing. The “Bring NWSL to LA” initiative was a great success, so much so that Natalie Portman, Oscar-winning actress, was also involved, who did not limit herself to this: she participated in the announcement of the birth of the new Los Angeles women’s team, admitted to the NWSL as of 2022 as the eleventh team in the league.

The name of the team is not yet known. Everything about her, however, has been brought together under a tentative name, Angel City. Portman is one of the four partners with an active role in the management of the new company, along with entrepreneurs Julie Uhrman and Kara Nortman and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder and CEO of the social network Reddit. Ohanian is also the husband of tennis player Serena Williams, also a member of the team along with her two-year-old daughter Olympia, actresses Jessica Chastain, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Garner, Uzo Aduba and America Ferrera. In the long list of minority shareholders there are also fourteen former footballers of the American national team, including Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Abby Wambach; Canadian singer Lilly Singh and finally Cindy Holland, Netflix vice president.

The announcement of the team’s founding – made the day before the semi-finals of the national cup, the NWSL Challenge Cup – had the success that was expected, with praise coming from Megan Rapinoe, the last female Ballon d’Or, from the mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti up to former tennis player Billie Jean King. The name and the stadium will be presented by the end of the year, in the meantime construction of the team will begin. Los Angeles’s entry into the NWSL will be preceded by Racing Louisville FC by one year.