Putellas provides mindset change as London City bid to upstage champions

Ballon d’Or winner’s move to WSL has transformed the Lionesses on and off the pitch with belief soaring ahead of Manchester City clash

As Martin Semmens, the London City Lionesses chief executive, sits down is his office he looks like the cat that got the cream. He says he has just learned that the club’s Instagram page has generated 34m hits since Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d’Or on Monday evening, and it is only Thursday afternoon. On Sunday, two clubs with seven of the top 30 players in the Ballon d’Or rankings will go head-to-head when Manchester City visit Hayes Lane, Bromley. It is, Semmens, says, “awesome for the WSL”.

From the outside, it can feel slightly surreal. The independent women’s club, owned by the businesswoman Michele Kang, are third in the top flight, two and a half years after finishing eighth in tier two, and Semmens believes signing the world’s best player has helped changed everybody at the club’s mindset.

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