London City Lionesses promise training centre built for women after Putellas signing
London City Lionesses have signed two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas and say their new training centre built specifically for women will open in less than a year.
The Ballon d'Or is the annual award for the world's best player. Putellas arrived as part of a summer of heavy investment in players, owner Michele Kang told BBC Sport BBC Sport.
Kang said the club is building a state-of-the-art, purpose-built training centre dedicated to female athletes and designed for them. She expects it to open in less than a year BBC Sport.
The new base will be at Cobdown Park in Ditton, Kent. Plans for the 28-acre site have been approved, with the club intending to develop it as an elite training centre BBC Sport.
Kang believes it will set a new standard in the women's game. She said the architect, who has built several Premier League training centres, told her it would be better than the facilities used by the majority of men's Premier League clubs.
Health is central to the design. Kang said female players suffer ACL injuries, a serious knee ligament injury, two or three times more often than male players. The planned centre is also expected to support research into female athlete health.
London City are owned by Kang's Kynisca group. They were the first independent club to compete in the Barclays Women's Super League, the top tier of English women's football, in the 2025/26 season.
They opened the new WSL season in September 2026 at home to Manchester United Reuters. The club now play at the CopperJax Community Stadium in Bromley, after moving home matches from Princes Park in Dartford ESPN.
What makes this stand out is the scale of the thinking. Most training grounds were built for men and later shared. Kang wants this one the other way round, with pitches, gym work, recovery and medical research shaped around women from the start.
For fans, this means a newcomer with big plans. A star signing on the pitch. A home to grow into. It is early days, but London City are talking like a club that wants to stay.
