Mary Earps is already in.
Mapi León appears to be waiting for her moment to follow.
Alexia Putellas is still deciding whether she wants to walk through the same door — and now has four options on the table.
London City Lionesses have gone in a matter of weeks from being one of women’s football’s most ambitious projects to occupying the centre of the European transfer market. The official arrival of Earps, advanced negotiations with Mapi and the battle to convince Alexia show that Michele Kang’s club no longer simply aims to consolidate itself in the Women’s Super League. It wants to alter the league’s hierarchy.
But the three operations are not at the same stage. In a market full of leaks and verbal agreements, that distinction still matters.
Mary Earps: the first confirmed signing
London City announced the signing of Mary Earps on 19 June, with the goalkeeper joining on a two-year deal. She will arrive on 1 July, once her contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires, returning to England after two years in France.
She is not simply arriving as a goalkeeper. She arrives as a European champion with England, a World Cup finalist, twice named the world’s best goalkeeper by FIFA, and one of the most recognisable British footballers of the past decade. At 33, she has chosen a club that can offer her something the WSL’s established giants cannot: the chance to become one of the defining faces of a project still under construction.
Her signing is sporting, but also cultural and commercial. London City need names capable of winning matches and filling a stadium. Earps can do both.
Mapi León: the agreement still waiting for its photograph
The situation surrounding Mapi León is more advanced than the official silence suggests. The Guardian reported on 2 June that London City had reached an agreement to sign her once her Barcelona contract expired. The Catalan club has since confirmed her departure after nine seasons; the English club has yet to present her.
Mapi would arrive on a free transfer at 31 years old, with four Champions League titles and an understanding of the centre-back role that suits the football Eder Maestre is trying to build. She is not simply a defender who wins duels. She is a player who allows her team to build from the back, break lines with her passing and turn the first phase of play into the beginning of an attack.
London City already have highly experienced central defenders in Saki Kumagai, Elena Linari and Alanna Kennedy. Mapi’s arrival would not fill an empty position — it would raise the level of a unit the club intends to make a genuine competitive advantage. It would also send a message: a player still capable of competing at any club in Europe would be choosing one that will not participate in next season’s Champions League.
That says a great deal about the persuasive power of the project.
Alexia: four options, none confirmed
The Alexia Putellas situation is different — and more open than it appeared three weeks ago.
The Guardian reported on 8 June that Alexia had reached a personal terms agreement with London City. However, ESPN reported the following day, citing a source within the club, that negotiations were continuing and no definitive deal yet existed. By 22 June, AS reported that the midfielder had four realistic options on the table: London City, another WSL club, and two NWSL franchises — one of them Gotham FC. The Mexican option, which had also been mentioned, appears to have been ruled out.
This would not simply be the greatest player in Barcelona’s history arriving in England. It would be a two-time Ballon d’Or winner and world champion choosing her next destination with every door open. London City hold a leading position, but there are projects capable of offering her immediate Champions League football or a commercial profile difficult to match from across the Atlantic.
The decision is not simply about wages. Alexia must decide what she wants the next chapter of her career to look like.
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A small Barcelona in Bromley
London City’s focus on Spain did not begin with Alexia and Mapi. The club has been building a Spanish backbone for some time.
Eder Maestre has managed the side since January, with a contract running until 2028. He previously worked at Real Sociedad and Costa Adeje Tenerife. Above him in the Kynisca Sports global structure sits Markel Zubizarreta as sporting director — one of the key figures behind the Barcelona side that came to dominate European women’s football. Already in the squad are Jana Fernández, María Pérez, Lucía Corrales and Elene Lete. Jana and Lucía came through Barcelona’s academy; María also spent time in their system before becoming a world champion.
This does not mean London City are copying Barcelona. It means they are incorporating part of the knowledge that made that growth possible — a footballing idea built on ball possession, spatial awareness and controlling matches — that Mapi knows inside out, and that Alexia has practised throughout her career.
The club, which plays its home matches at the CopperJax Community Stadium in Hayes Lane, already counts Grace Geyoro, Delphine Cascarino, Daniëlle van de Donk, Kosovare Asllani and Nikita Parris among their players. They are not building a squad from scratch. They are assembling footballers accustomed to playing finals.
Sixth place is not enough
London City’s first WSL season was a positive one. The team finished sixth with 27 points, won eight matches and closed the campaign with a victory over Aston Villa. For a newly promoted side, settling immediately in the top half represents a success. For Michele Kang’s project, it appears to be merely the starting point.
London City finished 28 points behind champions Manchester City and more than twenty behind the Champions League positions. The gap between competing respectably and challenging for titles remains significant. Earps, Mapi and Alexia would not be arriving to help the team survive. They would be arriving to try to close that gap in a single season.
The first week of season ticket sales for 2026/27 advanced at twice the pace of the previous year — and Earps had barely been announced. Mapi and Alexia are not yet official.
The foundations matter too
The investment has not gone solely into transfers. London City acquired the Cobdown Park site in 2024 — 28 acres of land intended for the first team and the academy. The development received planning permission in September 2025 and construction is already under way. According to the club, the future campus has been designed specifically around the needs of women’s and girls’ football.
For decades, women’s teams worked in inherited or adapted facilities. London City wants to build a structure designed for them from the ground up.
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The other side of the revolution
London City’s emergence also raises uncomfortable questions. While some clubs can offer seven-figure contracts and assemble squads full of internationals, many other women’s football projects continue to struggle for survival. The same market that makes it possible to imagine Earps, Mapi and Alexia at a club that has just completed its first top-flight season also reveals that the financial gap between clubs is widening rapidly.
The issue is not that investors are prepared to commit seriously to women’s football. The question is how to prevent the growth of a few from turning the rest of the game’s competitions into little more than talent pipelines for those who can afford to pay more.
London City represents both an opportunity and a warning. It demonstrates how far a club can advance when it receives proper resources, planning and infrastructure. It also shows how quickly new money can reshape football’s balance of power.
The assault has already begun. Earps is the first proof. Mapi may be the next. And Alexia will decide before the summer is over whether the most ambitious project in English women’s football also deserves to carry her name.
Sources: London City Lionesses — Mary Earps signing · FC Barcelona — official Mapi León statement · The Guardian — Earps and Mapi León · ESPN — Alexia negotiations update · AS — Alexia’s shortlist, 22 Jun · Kynisca Sports — Cobdown Park
