Why are the world’s biggest female sports stars investing in football clubs?

[ASFN Admin]

From now on, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams' matches will have an added layer of rivalry. "Showdown of the NWSL owners," the North Carolina Courage tweeted as the pair warmed up for their exhibition match in Adelaide on Friday. Before, they were linked by their grand slam champion status on the tennis court. Now, they are also competing football club owners, after Osaka announced on Thursday that she had bought a stake in National Women's Soccer League franchise the NC Courage. She follows her idols Williams and Billie Jean King, who both co-own Angel City FC. Though the Los Angeles expansion team will not begin competing in the NWSL until 2022, it has already set a new precedent for a small revolution happening in women's football in the US. When launched in July, Angel City sent Twitter into a frenzy. It became the first US sports franchise in history to be majority female owned, with eighty per cent of its ownership group women - many of them very famous women at that. Oscar-winning actor Natalie Portman had spearheaded the project, and Eva Longoria and Jennifer Garner are among the co-owners. Williams, King, winter Olympian Lindsay Vonn, plus 14 former US women's national team players are among the top sportswomen involved.

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